Skip to main content

Full text of "The silver age of Latin literature from Tiberius to Trajan"

See other formats 


THE    SILVER   AGE  OF 
LATIN     LITERATURE 


THE  SILVER  AGE 

OF 

LATIN    LITERATURE 

FROM  TIBERIUS  TO  TRAJAN 


BY 

WALTER  COVENTRY    SUMMERS,  M.A. 

FIRTH   PROFESSOR   OF    LATIN    IN    THB   UNIVERSITY   OF    SHEFFIELD, 
RORMERLY   FFtXOW   OF    ST.    JOHN's   COLLEGE,    CAMBRIDGE 


METHUEN  &  GO.   LTD. 

36    ESSEX    STREET    W.G. 

LONDON 


PA 

Si 


First  Pi/bliskcd  in  ig20 


PREFACE 

THE  term  '  Silver  Latin  '  is  often  applied  loosely 
to  all  the  post- Augustan  literature  of  Rome  : 
in  this  book  it  has  been  reserved  for  that 
earlier  part  of  it  which,  in  spite  of  a  definite  decline  in 
taste  and  freshness,  deserves  nevertheless  to  be  sharply 
distinguished  from  the  baser  metals  of  the  imitative 
or  poverty-stricken  periods  which  followed. 

I  hope  that  what  I  have  written  may  be  of  service  to 
professed  students  of  Latin,  and  the  notes  are  almost 
entirely  devoted  to  their  interests.  It  is,  however,  the 
general  reader  that  I  have  had  mainly  in  view,  a  fact 
which  has  made  it  necessary  to  EngHsh  all  illustrative 
extracts.  I  felt  very  strongly  that  renderings  from 
poets  must  be  themselves  in  verse  :  I  could  wish  it  had 
been  otherwise.  For  many  of  the  passages  had  never 
been  translated  into  English  verse,  and,  where  they 
had  been,  the  translations  seemed  almost  invariably 
too  free  to  serve  my  purpose,  which  was  to  give  the 
reader  a  tolerably  accurate  conception  of  what  the  poet 
wrote,  not,  as  for  instance  Dryden's  was,  to  make  the 
poet  '  speak  such  English  as  he  would  have  spoken  if 
he  had  been  born  in  England  and  in  this  present  age.' 
I  have  had,  therefore,  in  every  case  to  attempt  versions 
of  my  own,  in  which  I  h[ive  endeavoured  to  keep  as 
a  2  " 


vi     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

close  to  the  original  as  seemed  compatible  with  the 
composition  of  verse  that  should  run  with  some  ease 
and  EngUsh  that  might  be  read  with  some  pleasure. 
The  result  is,  at  best,  something  hke  an  engraving  of  a 
richly-coloured  painting  :  I  only  hope  that  the  reader 
will  be  able  to  regard  it  with  more  indulgence  than  I 
can  myself. 

The  paragraphs  dealing  with  the  influence  of  Silver 
writers  upon  later  literature  obviously  make  no  claim 
to  completeness,  but  perhaps  the  very  meagreness  of 
their  outlines  may  encourage  others  to  develop  them. 

I  have  Hved  for  so  long  in  constant  intimacy  with  the 
authors  of  whom  I  have  written  that  I  find  it  difficult 
to  estimate  the  extent  to  which  my  account  of  their 
work  is  coloured  by  what  I  have  read  in  histories  of 
literature  and  special  articles.  But  I  have  no  hesitation 
in  confessing  much  indebtedness,  in  the  one  category, 
to  the  Geschichte  der  romischen  Litteratur  of  Martin 
Schanz,  in  the  other,  to  Mr.  W.  E.  Heitland's  well- 
known  Introduction  to  Haskins'  edition  of  Lucan.  My 
friend  Mr.  C.  J.  Battersby  was  kind  enough  to  go 
through  my  proofs  :  his  frank  and  suggestive  criticisms 
have  enabled  me  to  smooth  away  some  of  the  rough- 
ness of  my  verses  and  remove  many  obscurities  of 
expression. 

WALTER  C.  SUMMERS 

The  University 

Sheffield,  June  1920 


CONTENTS 


CHAT.  PAGE 

Preface  v 

Chronological  Table ix 

I.  The  Declamations  and  the  Pointed  Style  i 

-'    II.  The  Epic i8 

III.  Drama 55 

IV.  Verse  Satire 64 

V.  Light  and  Miscellaneous  Verse.         .         .  85 

VI.  Oratory .        .128 

t    VII.  History,  Biography,  and  Memoirs       .         .  i37 

VIII.  Philosophy 195 

IX.  Prose-Satire  and  Romance    .  .         .217 

X.  Correspondence 238 

XI.  Grammar,  Criticism,  and  Rhetoric      .         .  252 

XII.  Scientific  and  Technical  Prose  .         .         .  277 

Note  on  Translations 3^ 

Index        .       ' 3^9 


VII 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 


B.C. 

E?  55.  Birth  of  the  elder  Seneca.] 
?  4.     Birth  of  Seneca  the  philosopher.] 

A.D. 

14-37.  Tiberius : 

{During  his  rule  and  that  of  Claudius  Palaemon  flourishes  : 
see  48.     Towards  the  end  of  it  Fenestella  dies.) 

14.  Velleius  elected  praetor. 

16.  Germanicus'  North  Sea  voyage  (after  which  falls  the  poem 
of  Pedo,  p.  18). 

19.  Death  of  Germanicus,  whose  translation  of  Aratus  pre- 
sumes the  death  of  Augustus. 

23/24.  Birth  of  the  elder  Pliny. 

25.  Prosecution  and  death  of  Cremutius  Cordus. 

30.  Consulship  of  Vinicius  :    dedication  of  Velleius'  book  to 

him. 

31.  Fall    of    Seianus.       Before    this,    but     under    Tiberius, 

Phaedrus'  first  two  books  published.  Between  it  and 
the  death  of  Tiberius,  publication  of  the  work  of 
Valerius  Maximus.  Pomponius  Secundus  in  disfavour 
from  now  until  the  accession  of  Caligula. 

34.  Death  of  Mamercus  Scaurus. 
(Dec.  4)  Birth  of  Persius. 

35.  Consulship  of  Seruilius  Nonianus. 

37-41.  Caligula  : 

{During  his  rule  the  rhetorical  work  of  the  elder  Seneca 
and  probably  Phaedrus''  later  books  appear.  The 
younger  Seneca  is  successful  at  the  bar.  Aufidius 
Bassus  had  published  at  least  part  of  his  historical 
work  when  the  elder  Seneca  wrote.) 

38.  Death  of  Graecinus  (conjectural,  but  at  any  rate  under 

Caligula).  Before  this,  but  after  the  death  of  Augustus, 
Celsus  had  published  at  least  his  agricultural  treatise. 

39.  Consulship  of  Domitius  Afer. 
(Nov.  3)  Birth  of  Lucan. 

c.  40.  Births  of  Martial  and  Quintilian. 

41.  (Jan.  24)  Assassination  of  Caligula,  by  the  time  of  which 

Cluuius  Rufus  had  held  the  consulate. 

ix 


X       SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

A.D. 

41-54.  Claudius  : 

{During  his  rule  Seruilius  Nonianus  was  giving  readings 
and  Curtius  wrote  his  History.) 

41.  Banishment  of  Seneca.     The  elder  Seneca  now  dead. 

42.  Mauretanian  campaign  of  Suetonius  Paulinus. 
43-48.  Scribonius  Largus'  work  written. 

44.  British  triumph  of  Claudius,  shortly  before  which  Mela 
completes  his  work. 

47.  Pomponius  Secundus  mobbed  in  the  theatre. 

48.  ]txovci.€  %  floruit  for  Palaemon. 

Speech  of  Claudius  in  the  senate  (see  p.  176). 

49.  Marriage  of  Claudius  and  Agrippina  :  Seneca's  recall. 

50.  Victory  of  Pomponius  Secundus  over  the  Chatti. 
52.  Gallio,  Seneca's  brother,  governor  of  Achaia. 

54.  Appearance  of  comet  to  which  Calpurnius  alludes. 

54-68.  Nero  : 

{To  Nero  %vas  dedicated  the  metrical  treatise  of  Caesius 
Bassus.     Under  him,  and  probably  early  in  the  reign, 
the  Einsiedeln  poems  and  Seneca's  satire  on  Claudius 
were  cotnposedj  before  his  death,  the  Iliad  translation). 
54-57.  Asconius'  Cicero  commentary  composed. 

56.  Seneca's  De  dementia  published. 

57.  Amphitheatre    built    in    the   Campus    Martius,      To   the 

opening    exhibitions    refers    the    seventh   eclogue   of 
Calpurnius. 

58.  Latest  date  probable  for  the  birth  of  Tacitus. 

59.  Deaths     of    Agrippina,    Domitius    Afer,    and    Seruilius 

Nonianus. 

60.  Institution   by  Nero   of  quinquennial   contests.     Lucan's 

panegyric  of  the  emperor  delivered. 
61/62.   Birth  of  the  younger  Pliny. 

62.  Death  of  Burrus.     Virtual  retirement  of  Seneca. 
(Nov.  24)  Death  of  Persius. 

63.  Earthquake   in   Campania  (mentioned  in  the  Naturales 

Quaestiones  of  Seneca). 

64.  Martial's  arrival  in  Rome. 

Vatinius'  power  at  court.     Curiatius  Maternus  begins  to 

write  tragedy. 
c.  65.  Columella  writing. 

Fire     at     Lyons     (mentioned    in     Seneca's    ninety-first 

letter). 

65.  Conspiracy  of  Piso  :  deaths  of  Piso,  Seneca,  and  (Apr.  30) 

Lucan. 

66.  Death  of  Petronius. 

67.  Death  of  Corbulo. 

68.  Consulates  of  SiHus  Italicus  and  Galerius  Trachalus. 


I 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE  xi 

A.D. 

68/69.  Galba,  Otho,  Vitellius  : 

{After  Nerds   death   were  written    the    '  Octavia '   a7id^ 
presumably^  the  historical  wo7-k  of  Fabius  Rusticus.) 
68.  Quintilian  brought  to  Rome  by  Galba.     (?)  Opening  of  his 
school. 

69-79.  Vespasian : 

{Valerius  Flaccus  dedicated  his  poem  to  Vespasian.) 

70.  Aquilius  Regulus  attacked  as  a  delator  in  the  senate. 

72.  Third  consulship  of  Mucianus  (who  was  dead  when  Nat, 
Hist.  32.  62  was  written). 

'J'].  Sixth  consulship  of  Titus  :  dedication  to  him  of  Pliny's 
Natural  History. 

TjjyZ.  Dramatic  date  of  Dialogus  (see  p.  260).  Curiatius 
Maternus  has  just  given  a  reading  of  his  Cato  ;  Vibius 
Crispus,  after  having  for  a  long  time  enjoyed  power  as 
a  pleader,  is  influential  with  Vespasian  ;  Julius  Secundus 
and  Marcus  Aper  are  the  leading  counsel  of  the  day. 

78.  Tacitus'  marriage  to  Agricola's  daughter. 

79-81.  Titus: 

(Aug.  24)  Eruption   of  Vesuvius.     (?)  Death   of  Caesius 

Bassus  (p.  96^). 
(Aug.  25)  Death  of  the  elder  Pliny. 

[The   death   of  Statins'  father  and  the  publication  of 
Pliny's  continuation  of  the  history  of  Aufidius  Bassus 
are  subsequent  to  these  events.] 
79/80.  Statius  begins  his  Thebais  (see  91,  92). 
80.  Opening  of  the  Colosseum  :   Martial's  book  on  the  games 
composed. 

81-96.  Domitian : 

83/84.  Defeat  of  the  Chatti ;   assumption  by  Domitian  of  the 
title  Germanicus. 
c  84.  Frontinus'  Strategeinata^  Martial's  Xenia  and  Apophoreta 
composed. 
85/86.  Publication  of  the  first  book  of  Martial's  epigrams. 
86.  Institution  of  the  Capitoline  contests  by  Domitian. 
87/88.   ?  Floruit  of  Probus  (see  Mart.  3.  2.  12). 
88.  Praetorship  of  Tacitus.     Retirement  of  Quintilian. 
91/92.  Thebais  completed  by  Statius  (after  twelve  years'  work). 
92.  The  first  book  of  Statius'  Silvae  published. 

?  Publication  of  Quintilian's  Institutio  Oratoria  (which 
presumes  the  deaths  of  Valerius  Flaccus,  Saleius 
Bassus,  Serranus,  Trachalus,  \'ibius  Crispus,  and 
Julius  Secundus). 
Part  of  Silius'  Punica  probably  published  by  now 
(see  p.  28). 


xii     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

A.D. 

J,         93.  Death  of  Agricola. 

95.  The  fourth  book  of  Statius'  Silvae  published  and  the 

Achilleis  begun  :  the  poet  in  Naples. 
96/97.  Pliny's  letters  begin. 

96-98.  Nerva : 

96.  Publication  of  the  eleventh  book  of  Martial's  epigrams. 

97.  Consulship  of  Tacitus.     Death  of  Verginius  Rufus  (see 

P-  133)'     Julius  Frontinus  ^wra/or  of  the  aqueducts. 

98-117.  Trajan  : 

98.  Second  consulship  of  Trajan.    Publication  of  the  .(4_y^r/V£>/a 

and  Ger mania  of  Tacitus. 
This  yea)^,  or  later,  if  it  is  the  work  of  Tacitus,  must  have 

appeared  the  Dialogus. 
Martial's  return  to  Spain. 
100.  Prosecution  of  Marius  by  Tacitus  and  Pliny. 

Consulship  of  Pliny,  who  delivers  his   panegyric   (ap- 
parently in  the  latter  half  of  the  year). 
101/102.  Death  of  Silius  Italicus. 

102.  Publication  of  the  twelfth  book  of  Martial's  epigrams, 
c.  104.  Deaths  of  Martial  and  Frontinus. 

c.  106.  First  hints  that  Tacitus  is  at  work  upon  the  Histories 
(see  p.  164). 
?  Death  of  Aquilius  Regulus  (see  p.  132). 
c.  III.   Pliny  governor  in  Bithynia. 

X14.  Trajan's   assumption  of  the  title  optimus.     Pliny  prob- 
ably dead  by  now  (see  p.  239). 

115.  Appearance  of  comet  to  which  Juvenal  refers  in  his  sixth 

satire. 

116.  Extension    of  Roman   boundary   to   the   Persian  Gulf: 

earliest  year  possible  for  the  death  of  Tacitus. 
[128.  Juvenal  still  writing  (see  p.  76).] 


^ 


THE   SILVER   AGE   OF   LATIN 
LITERATURE 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  DECLAMATIONS  AND  THE  POINTED 

STYLE     • 

THE  brilliant  period  of  Latin  literature  to  which 
the  term  Augustan  is  commonly  applied 
had,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  come  to  an  end  long 
before  the  death  of  Rome's  first  emperor  in  a.d.  14. 
By  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  Virgil,  Horace, 
Propertius,  and  TibuUus  had  been  dead  for  years, 
Livy  was  nearly  sixty,  and,  if  still  writing,  engaged 
only  upon  the  completion  of  a  work  the  conception  of 
which  dated  at  least  twenty  years  earlier.  The  fact 
that  Ovid  had  still  to  produce  the  most  masterly  of  his 
compositions  is  but  one  of  several  that  might  justify 
us  in  placing  him  not  merely  on  the  border  line  of  a 
new  era,  but  definitely  across  it. 

Joy  at  the  return  of  peace  after  nearly  a  century 
of  civil  strife,  pride  in  the  might  of  an  empire,  the  full 
majesty  of  which  men  failed  to  reahse  until  its  ad- 
ministration passed  into  the  hands  of  a  single  individual 
— that  these  emotions  inspired  the  best  work  of  the 
Augustans  is  a  commonplace  of  literary  history.  But 
man,  alas,  soon  learns  to  take  the  blessings  of  peace 
for  granted,  and  the  spirit  of  imperialism  easily  de- 


2         SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

generates  into  that  of  literature's  deadliest  foe, 
materialism.  It  was  fortunate  that  at  the  moment 
when  the  flowers  of  this  delicate  Italian  growth  began 
to  show  signs  of  languishing,  a  genial  soil  for  its  seeds 
presented  itself  in  the  provinces,  destined  hence- 
forward to  give  to  Rome's  letters  that  assistance 
which  they  had  hitherto  rendered  only  to  her  legions. 
But  the  seeds  themselves  were  by  no  means  vigorous  or 
healthy.  Long  before  the  chilling  frosts  of  disillusion- 
ment and  complacency  had  \\dthered  the  plant,  nay, 
in  the  very  season  when  it  had  seemed  at  its  proudest 
and  strongest,  experienced  eyes  had  observed  processes 
at  work  upon  it  which  must  inevitably  distort  its 
growth  and  would  in  the  end  very  possibly  extinguish 
its  Hfe. 

From  the  outset,  almost,  Roman  literature  mani- 
fested the  tendency  to  appeal  only  to  the  cultivated 
few.  Horace's  contempt  for  the  '  uninitiate  throng  '  ^ 
is  but  the  open  confession  of  the  creed  that  is  hinted 
by  Terence's  prologues,  one  hundred  years  before. 
Such  a  tendency  need  not  necessarily  be  fatal  to  the 
production  of  great  Hterature,  but  it  is  fatally  apt  to 
encourage  that  conception  of  literature  which  holds 
a  work  good  or  bad  according  as  it  conforms  to  certain 
rules,  and  assumes  that  he  who  knows  those  rules 
may  safely  write.  This  second  canon  is  in  itself  the 
more  dangerous  of  the  two,  and  was  bound  to  have 
serious  consequences  in  imperial  Rome,  where  men  of 
ambition  who  found  the  main  outlet  of  their  energies 
suddenly  closed  by  the  almost  total  extinction  of 
poUtical  life  naturally  fell  back  upon  the  once  sub- 
sidiary channels  of  literary  fame.  '  Under  the  old 
r^me,'    says    Horace, ^    '  my    countrymen    affected 

»  Od.  3.  I.   I.  *  Ep.  2.  I.  103  sqq. 


THE  RECITATIONS  3 

practical  occupations,  like  those  of  the  money-lender 
and  lawyer  : 

Such  once  Rome's  taste,  that  now  is  fickle  grown 

And  with  the  lust  for  writing  burns  alone. 

No  boy,  no  senior  staid,  but  as  he  dines 

Must  wreathe  his  brows  in  bay,  and  spout  his  lines.' 

The  remark  may  belong  to  as  late  a  date  as  the  year 
13  B.C.,  but  dilettantism  was  clearly  rampant  thirty 
years  earher,  when  the  poet  published  the  Satires, 
in  one  of  which  ^  he  finds  it  necessary  to  explain, 
obviously  as  a  departure  from  the  custom  of  the  age, 
his  reluctance  to  give  public  readings  of  his  works. 

For  the  public  reading,  introduced  at  Rome  by  the 
disappointed  statesman  and  patron  of  Virgil,  Asinius 
Pollio,^  drew  its  very  life-breath  from  dilettantism. 
The  writings  of  Martial  and  the  younger  Pliny  show 
that  by  their  time  the  necessity  of  attending  the  '  reci- 
tation '  had  become  a  burden  upon  society  hardly  less 
insufferable  than  that  of  the  formal  morning  call. 
Things  had  not,  probably,  gone  so  far  during  the 
reign  of  Augustus,  but  the  founder  of  the  institution 
must,  before  he  died,  have  realised  that  his  experiment 
had  failed  completely.  Himself  the  most  merciless  of 
critics,  PoUio  had  doubtless  contemplated  little  more 
than  a  development  of  that  which  had  been  common 
enough  long  before  his  time,  the  reading  by  a  writer 
of  some  piece  of  work  that  had  not  yet  reached  its 
final  form  before  one  or  two  brother  authors  or  men 
of  acknowledged  taste,  for  the  purpose  of  eliciting 
comment  and  obtaining  advice  upon  points  of  doubt 
or  difficulty.  Such,  at  any  rate,  is  the  theory  of  its 
functions    still   maintained    under    Domitian    by    its 

^  I.  4.  22  cum  mea  nemo  \  scripta  legat,  uolgo  recitare  timentis. 
*  Sen.  Contr.  4  praef.  2. 


4         SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

warmest  advocate,  the  younger  Pliny. ^  It  is  possible 
that  this  primitive  form  of  recitatio  did  much  for  Roman 
letters,  that  many  a  fine  passage  in  Propertius  or  Horace 
was  inspired  by  the  hints  of  an  Ovid  or  a  Varus.^ 
But  even  in  such  limited  gatherings  we  may  be  sure 
that  the  situation  sometimes  grew  strained,  friendship 
beginning  to  totter  as  criticism  grew  strong.  In  the 
formal  functions  of  the  empire  it  must  very  soon  have 
become  impossible  to  make  a  frank  avowal  of  one's 
judgment.  Men  did  not  hire  a  hall  and  furnish  it 
comfortably,  or  borrow  a  reception-room  from  a 
patron  ^  (who  regarded  the  favour  as  full  quittance 
for  the  faithful  services  rendered  him  by  the  literary 
aspirant  in  the  past),  issue  invitations  of  which  those 
who  had  not  the  moral  courage  to  refuse  them  must 
be  continually  reminded,*  and  finally  on  the  great  day 
itself  appear,  raised  aloft  on  a  rostrum  and  dressed 
in  their  best  clothes,^  before  an  audience  that  might 
easily  include  the  emperor,^ — simply  to  have  holes 
picked  in  their  latest  compositions.  On  the  contrary, 
if  the  reading  was  not  freely  punctuated  with  ex- 
pressions of  strong  approval  (borrowed  generally, 
of  course,  from  the  language  of  a  nation  whose  superior 
culture  had  '  taken  captive  its  rude  conqueror ' '), 
if  the  whole  assemblage  did  not  at  times  rise  to  its 

^  See  e.g.  Ep.  5.  3.  8  has  recitandi  causas  sequor,  primum  quod  ipse 
qui  recital  aliquanio  acrius  scriptis  suis  auditorum  reuereniia  intendit, 
deinde  quod  de  quibus  dubitat  quasi  ex  consilii  sententia  statuit. 

2  Ov.  Trist.  4.  10.  45  saepe  stios  solitus  recitare  Propertius  ignes, 
Hor.  A.  P.  438  Quintilio  si  quid  recitares,  '  corrige,  sodes,  |  hoc  ' 
aiebat '  et  hoc' 

3  Tac.  Dial.  9,  Juv.  7.  39  sqq. 

*  Plin.  Ep.  I.  13.  4. 

*  Pers.  I.  15  haec  populo  pexusque  togaque  recenti  |  .  .  .  .  sede 
leges  celsa. 

8  See  for  Augustus  Suet.  Aug.  89,  for  Claudius  Plin.  Ep.  i.  13.  3, 
for  Nero  the  Vita  Lttcani. 
''  E.g.  sophos  (cro^ws),  etige  f 


THE  RECITATIONS  5 

feet  and  pay  silent  tribute,  the  performance  ranked 
as  a  failure — frigus}  or  chill,  as  one  may  fairly  render 
it,  and  what  else  could  one  expect  if  the  cool  breath 
of  dispassionate  criticism  once  got  circulating  in  these 
stuffy  salons  ?  Such  incidents  were  rare.  Most  of 
the  members  of  an  audience,  themselves  looking 
forward  to  the  day  when  it  would  be  their  turn  to 
occupy  the  platform,  would  be  quite  willing  to  exhibit 
as  judges  to-day  the  clemency  they  might  need  as 
performers  to-morrow.  Barring  accidents — for  these 
highly-strung  amateurs  had,  in  matters  non-literary, 
an  acute  sense  of  the  ridiculous,  and  the  collapse  of  a 
row  of  chairs  or  a  facetious  interruption  from  the  body 
of  the  hall  might  easily  render  them  incapable  of  giving 
you  any  further  attention  ^ — but  barring  such  accidents, 
if  you  abstained  from  any  attempt  to  mould  taste 
and  followed  imphcitly  the  rule  that  directs  that 
those  who  please  to  write  must  write  to  please,  you 
could  count  on  decent  treatment.  These  were  the 
circles,  no  doubt,  in  which  arose  the  tradition  that 
the  chief  poets  of  the  Augustan  age  were  Virgil — 
and  Rabirius,^  and  a  tendency  to  elaborate  passages 
lending  themselves  to  effective  reading  which  probably 
had  much  to  do  with  the  readiness  to  sacrifice  the 
whole  to  the  part  that  is  so  prominent  a  feature  in 
Silver  writing.* 

But  fashions  quickly  pass,  and  the  dangers  with 
which  literature  is  threatened  by  its  own  popularity  do 
not  always  have  time  to  materiaHze.  What  made  the 
outlook  really  hopeless  was  the  state  of  education. 
The  Republic  had  known  but  one  form  of  it,  to  wit, 

»  Plin.  Ep.  6.  15.  4. 

*  See  the  anecdotes  related  on  pp.  152  and  246. 

»  See  p.  145.  *  See  pp.  30,  35,  81,  144. 


6         SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

that  which  had  for  aim  the  production  of  the  public 
speaker.  And  now,  when  the  enthusiasm  for  Uterature 
and  culture  called  aloud  for  a  broadening  of  the 
educational  system,  new  merits  were  discovered  in 
the  old,  famihar  method.  '  From  the  study  of 
eloquence,'  says  the  older  Seneca,  to  whose  work 
on  the  declamations  we  owe  a  great  debt,  '  from 
the  study  of  eloquence  one  easily  strikes  off  into  any 
of  the  others.  She  gives  weapons  even  to  those  who 
never  intend  to  serve  in  her  ranks.'  ^  The  words 
must  have  sounded  like  a  commonplace  to  his  con- 
temporaries :  no  one  seems  to  have  protested  that 
when  the  needs  of  the  many  are  forced  into  a  frame- 
work originally  intended  to  satisfy  those  of  the  few, 
that  framework,  or  at  least  part  of  it,  will  probably 
be  damaged.  In  rhetoric,  it  was  the  exercise,  or 
declamation,  that  gave  way.  Where  so  many  students 
had  no  intention  of  proceeding  to  the  bar,  its  original 
purpose  was  easily  forgotten,  and  it  became  little 
more  than  a  vehicle  for  the  display  of  wit  and  in- 
genuity, the  tour  de  force  or  brilliant  handhng  of  some 
philosophic  or  psychological  point  gaining  far  higher 
marks  than  any  effective  plea,  or  the  careful  weaving 
of  a  chain  of  evidence.  With  the  change  in  the  view 
point  came  naturally  a  change  in  the  character  of  the 
themes,  which  were  no  longer  necessarily  drawn  from 
the  pages  of  history  or  the  records  of  the  law,^  and 
sometimes  became  almost  as  imaginative  as  the  argu- 
ment of  an  epic  or  a  tragedy.     Great  store  was  set 

*  Contr.  2  pr.  3  facilis  ah  hac  in  omnes  artes  discursus  est :  ivstruit 
etiam  quos  non  sihi  exercet. 

*  Suet.  De  Rhet.  i  hints  at  the  change :  ueteres  controversiae  aut 
ex  historiis  trahebantur  aut  ex  ueritate  ac  re,  si  qua  forte  recens  accidisset. 
Comparison  of  the  themes  he  mentions  with  those  of  the  elder 
Seneca's  book  or  Quintihan's  Institutio  (see  especially  the  at  first 
sight  similar  one  of  Inst.  Or.  7.  3.  31)  is  very  instructive. 


THE  DECLAMATIONS  7 

on  the  invention  of  nice  cases  and  difficult  dilemmas. 
A  vestal  virgin,  convicted  of  breach  of  vows  and  flung 
down  a  precipice,  escapes  without  injury  :  is  she  to 
undergo  the  ordeal  afresh  ?  i  A  man  having  three 
sons — an  orator,  a  philosopher,  and  a  doctor — leaves 
his  money  to  the  one  who  has  done  his  fellow-creatures 
most  good. 2  Romance  even  makes  its  appearance 
in  these  primarily  legal  regions :  the  mediaeval  Gesta 
Romanorum  found  several  novels  in  Seneca's  book.^ 
A  man  is  captured  by  pirates,  but  freed  by  the  chief's 
daughter.  Arriving  home  with  her  as  his  bride,  he 
is  disinherited  by  his  father.*  Or,  a  loving  couple 
vow  not  to  survive  each  other.  The  husband,  going 
abroad,  takes  occasion  to  send  his  wife  false  news  of  his 
own  death  :  she  flings  herself  over  a  precipice.  On  her 
recovering,  and  learning  the  truth,  her  father  requires 
her  to  divorce  so  inconsiderate  a  partner.^  The  law 
of  these  cases  is  often  such  as  never  stood  in  Roman 
statute  books,  sometimes  such  as  no  code  known 
to  antiquity  contained — law  that  grants  actions  for 
ingratitude  and  insanity,  and  recognises  the  use  of 
dreams  as  evidence  and  figures  of  speech  as  argu- 
ments. Thus,  when  inviting  an  opponent  to  swear 
the  truth  of  his  statements  by  a  particularly  solemn 
oath,  you  might  say  '  Let  him  swear  by  his  father's 
ashes — which  he  has  never  buried,  by  his  father's 
memory — on  which  he  has  brought  dishonour,'  and  so 
on,  making  the  whole  thing  into  a  row  of  pegs  on  which 
to  suspend  various  misdeeds  of  which  you  wished  to 
imply  him  guilty.  A  famous  professor  was  rash 
enough  to  use  the  figure  in  a  real  case  in  which  he  had 

^  Sen.  Conir.  1.3.  ^  Quint.  Decl.  Min.  268. 

'  Cp.  for  instance  Sen.  i.  i  with  Gesta  2,  i.  3  with  Gesta  3,  and  see 
Friedlaender,  Sittengeschichte  Roms  (E.T.  iv.  p.  297). 
*  Sen.  Contr.  i.  6.  ^  Sen.  Contr.  2.  2. 


8    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

become  involved,  and  was  quite  taken  aback  when  the 
practical  man  on  the  other  side  promptly  declared 
that  his  chent  was  ready  to  take  such  an  oath.     '  Not 
at  all/  he  rephed  :    '  this  isn't  a  real  offer  :    it 's  a 
figure  of  speech ! '     Then,  finding  that  the  jury,  who 
wanted  to  get  away,  was  with  his  opponent,  he  began 
to  lament  that  this  would  be  the  death  of  the  figures  : 
the  barrister  expressed  a  behef  that  hfe  would  still  be 
possible  without  them,  and  won  his  case.^     Another 
of  these  teachers,  standing  trial  on  a  serious  charge, 
was  found  on  the  evening  of  the  first  day  lost  in  ad- 
miration for  the  eloquence  of  his  prosecutor,  and  had 
to  be  reminded  that  the  latter  would  not  come  down 
next  day  (as  he  would  at  school)  to  argue  the  other 
side  with  equal  force. 2     It  was  indeed  in  an  enchanted 
garden  they  and  their  pupils  lived,  rearing  and  tending 
choice  flowers  that  the  first  touch  of  common  sense 
must  send  fluttering  to  the  ground.     So  absolutely 
had  the  original  conception  of  the  declamations  as 
exercises   for    the   learner   disappeared    that    orators 
of  standing  and  men  who  had  held  high  office  regularly 
gave  pubHc  exhibitions  of  their  skill  in  composing 
them.3     Some   of   those   from  which   Seneca  quotes 
were  dehvered  in  the  presence  of  various  noblemen, 
and  even  the   Emperor  himself. *    There  was  really 
no   difference  between   a  performance   of    this    kind 
and  a  recitatio,  though,  curiously  enough,  Polho,  the 

*  Sen.  Contr.  7.  pr.  6  sqq.  :  damabat  AJhucius  '  non  detuli  con- 
dtctonem:  schema  dixi.'  Arruntius  instahat.  .  .  .  Albucius  damabat 
'tsia  ratione  schemata  de  rerum  natura  tolluntur.'  Arruntius  aiebat 
'  tollantur  :   poterimus  sine  illis  uiuere.' 

'  Sen.  Contr.  7.  5.  12. 

»  This  is  sufficiently  established  by  the  '  Oratorum  et  Rhetorum  ' 
on  the  title-page  of  Seneca'^  book  (p.  257)  :  cp.  i.  2.  22  where  a 
mr  praetorius  declaims  a  controuersia. 

*  Contr.  2.  4.  12,  10  pr.  3,  Suas.  2.  21. 


THE  DECLAMATIONS  9 

inventor  of  the  latter,  never  consented  to  declaim 
before  a  large  audience. ^  It  seems,  indeed,  as  if  the 
schools  themselves  gradually  came  to  be  looked 
upon  as  mere  declamation  salons  :  at  least  it  is  difficult, 
on  any  other  hypothesis,  to  understand  how,  for 
instance,  when  a  certain  professor  was  developing  for 
his  pupils  a  thought  closely  akin  to  that  of  the  pro- 
verbial 'I  will  be  Caesar,  or  nothing,'  declaring  that 
if  he  were  a  gladiator  he  would  be  Fusius,  if  a  ballet- 
dancer  Bathyllus,  if  a  race-horse  Melissus  (the  names 
selected  being  of  course  those  of  the  popular  favourite 
in  each  case),  it  can  have  been  possible  for  a  scoffer 
like  Cassius  Severus,  the  most  mordant  wit  of  the  day, 
to  be  present  and  interpolate  the  remark,  '  And  I 
suppose,  if  you  were  a  drain-pipe,  'tis  a  main  drain 
you  would  be.'  2 

The  only  complete  specimens  of  the  declamation 
that  have  reached  us  almost  certainly  belong  to  a 
later  period  than  ours.^  Seneca  gives  us,  apart  from 
a  few  hints  on  treatment,  only  the  '  best  things ' 
that  he  can  remember  as  having  been  uttered  by 
various  declaimers.  The  fact  is  very  characteristic, 
for  the  pointed  sentence,  packed  tight  with  all  kinds 
of  irony  and  allusion,  often  inteUigible  only  to  one 
who  had  grasped  every  detail  of  the  case,  was  the 
essence  of  the  thing.  It  is  not  easy  to  give  the  general 
reader  a  clear  and  just  impression  of  these  sentences. 
Even  the  expert  Latinist,  coming  to  them  for  the  first 
time,  finds  that  it  takes  time  to  learn  to  breathe  such 
an  atmosphere,  and  translation,  which  dulls  the 
brilliance  of  the  epigram,  is  deadly  to  the  mere  conceit 

*  Sen.  Contr.  4  pr.  2. 

*  Sen.  Contr.  3  pr.  16  si  cloaca  esses,  maxima  esses 
'  See  p.  275. 


10       SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

which  is  so  often  all  the  declaimer  manages  to  attain. 
I  feel  bound  however  to  make  the  attempt,  and  trust 
that  the  reader  on  his  side  will  bear  in  mind  that 
the  dividing  line  between  passion  and  extravagance, 
force  and  bombast,  is  not  a  thing  upon  which  Southern 
and  Northern  Europe  are  even  to-day  in  complete 
agreement. 

The  reader  will  remember  some  of  the  themes 
mentioned  a  few  paragraphs  back.  The  Vestal's 
foes  argue  that  what  has  befallen  her,  so  far  from 
representing  the  reversal  by  the  gods  of  a  human 
verdict,  is  really  part  of  her  punishment :  '  I  hope 
she  will  be  picked  up  alive  when  she  's  thrown  down 
the  second  time.'  ^  The  youth  who  has  married  a 
pirate's  daughter  cannot  help  reflecting  that  whereas 
in  most  cases  fathers  blame  their  sons  for  not  settHng 
down  and  taking  a  wife,  he  is  being  punished  for  not 
deserting  one.^  And  he  suddenly  remembers,  '  when 
I  took  the  oath  to  marry  her,  'twas  by  this  father  of 
mine  I  swore  !  '  ^  On  the  other  side  prosecutor  strikes 
an  attitude  of  alarm.  '  Hearken  to  the  uproar ! 
See,  son — plunder  and  pillage  everywhere,  country- 
houses  in  flames,  shepherds  and  ploughmen  in  flight  ! 
But  there,  'tis  but  your  father-in-law  come  to  pay  you  a 
call  /  '  4  In  the  declamation  of  the  ^  Mutual  Oath  ' 
the  husband  says  to  his  father-in-law,  '  You  think 
the  oath  was  unreasonable  :  lovers  are  unreasonable, 
and  only  old  dotards  can  unite  love  and  discretion,'  ^ 
And  again,  '  She  threatens  to  kill  herself  if  her  father 

*  Contr.  I.  3.  I  quid  tihi  .  .  .  precer  nisi  ut  ne  bis  qiiidem  deiecta 
pereas  ? 

2  L.c.  I.  6.  7. 

*  L.c.  §  2  promisi  nupiias,  et  quasi  aliquam  sacrum  tesiationetn 
iuum  nomen  insenii  :  cp.  §  10. 

*  L.c.  §  12.  s  Contr.  2.  2.  10  senes  sic  amant. 


THE  DECLAMATIONS  ii 

disowns   her.     He  doesn't  believe  her.     Nor  did  her 
husband.'  ^ 

So  far  I  have  quoted  only  passages  that  Seneca 
gives  either  without  comment  or  even  with  approval. 
Some  are  too  much  for  him.  When  a  student  working 
on  the  Une  that  Heaven  had  simply  wished  to  prolong 
the  Vestal's  agony  said,  '  The  gods  heard  our  prayers 
and  recalled  her,'  his  professor  interpolated,  '  What, 
like  a  chariot  that  has  made  a  false  start  at  the  races  ?  ' 
and  went  on  to  indulge  in  personahties  that  shocked 
the  class.2  It  was  a  professor  himself  who  suggested 
that  from  the  time  the  condemned  woman  had  erred, 
she  had  practised  the  art  of  falling  down  precipices. ^ 
In  another  declamation,  where  a  son  charges  his  father 
not  merely  with  refusing  to  ransom  him  from  pirates 
but  with  writing  to  promise  them  twice  the  amount 
demanded  if  they  cut  off  both  his  hands,  some 
one  made  defendant  plead  '  It  was  all  a  mistake  :  / 
dictated  if  you  cut  not  off  both  his  hands,  and  the  clerk 
accidentally  omitted  the  negative.'  *  Again,  a  woman 
who  has  been  convicted  of  poisoning  her  stepson 
spitefully  names  as  her  accomphce  his  sister.  Cestius, 
wishing  to  bring  out  the  fact  that  the  girl  was  a  mere 
child,  introduced  a  dialogue  in  which  her  mother  said, 
'  Take  this  poison  and  give  it  to  your  brother,'  and 
she  repHed,  '  Poison,  mother  ?  What  is  that  ?  '  ^ 
Triarius  improved  upon  this  by  making  her  say,  '  Can't 

^  L.c.  §  I  hoc  illi  pater  non  credit  :  nee  uir  credidit. 

*  The  boy  was  son  to  the  Varus  who  let  himself  be  surprised  by 
Arminius  in  the  Teutoburgian  forests,  and  the  professor  wound  up 
with  the  taunt  '  ista  neglegentia  pater  tuus  exercittim  perdidit ' 
Ifiontr.  I.  3.  lo). 

'  L.c.  §  II  foriasse  poenae  se  praeparauit  et  ex  quo  peccare  coepit 
cadere  condidicit. 

*  Contr.  I.  7.  18  ego  dictaui  '  duplam  dabo  si  manus  noti  praeci- 
deritis,'  librario  una  syllaba  excidit  '  non.' 

*  Contr.  9.  6.  10. 


12       SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

I  have  some  ?  '  ^  This  instance  is  a  very  characteristic 
one :  many  turns  that  offend  us  in  the  declamations 
are  due  to  the  same  combination  of  the  desire  to  rival 
a  successful  coup  with  complete  lack  of  the  sense  of 
humour. 

The  conventional  censure  of  Silver  literature  as 
rhetorical  understates  the  case  against  it.  The  most 
thorough-going  enemy  of  rhetoric  must  admit  a  vast 
difference  between  the  rhetoric  of  Euripidean  drama 
and  that  of  Seneca's.  It  is  in  the  fact  that  it  is  infected 
with  the  faults  of  this  particular  kind  of  rhetorical 
exercise  that  the  weakness  of  first-century  Latin 
mainly  lies. 

For  the  love  of  epigram,  antithesis,  paradox,  and 
allusion — all  that  for  lack  of  a  better  name  is  in  this 
book  called  point — the  declamations  were  not  of  course 
solely  responsible.  The  age  of  Pope  affords  evidence 
enough  to  prove  that  such  a  tendency  can  arise  spon- 
taneously enough  at  a  time  when  letters  become 
fashionable,  and  elegance  and  wit  usurp  the  place 
of  vigour  and  inspiration.  Roman  literature,  as  we 
shall  see  in  a  moment,  was  particularly  likely  to  develop 
it.  But  the  pointed  flowers  of  the  declamation  are 
something  more  than  a  mere  escape  from  the  large 
garden  of  contemporary  taste  :  they  are  the  principal 
objects  of  its  cultivation.  It  seems  indeed  almost 
as  if  these  tricks  of  language  and  thought  might  be, 
so  to  speak,  lineal  descendants  of  those  quibbles 
and  subtleties  upon  which  the  old,  genuinely  legal 
exercises  were  based.  Be  that  as  it  may,  we  have 
definite  proof  of  the  influence  which  a  school  point 
could  exercise  upon  alumni  in  their  years  of  maturity. 
Seneca,   for   instance,  mentions  that  Ovid  borrowed 

*  L.c.  §  1 1  mater y  et  »iihi  da. 


THE  DECLAMATIONS  13 

from  his  master  Latro  the  suggestion  that  his  Ajax 
makes  in  regard  to  the  arms  of  Achilles  for  which  he 
and  Ulysses  are  candidates  : 

Fling  them  amidst  the  foe,  and  bid  us  thence 
Retrieve  them !  ^ 

For  a  careful  reader  of  the  declamations,  indeed,  the 
literature  of  our  period  is  full  of  such  echoes.  Some 
points  had  quite  a  vogue  in  this  way.  The  thought, 
for  instance,  that  the  misfortunes  of  those  we  love 
endear  them  the  more  to  us,  found  more  than  once  in 
declamations,  recurs  in  Seneca's  plays,  one  of  his 
letters,  Lucan  and  Statius.^  Suetonius  makes  Tiberius 
meet  a  convict's  prayer  for  immediate  execution  with 
the  reply,  '  I  have  not  yet  forgiven  you  !  '  a  mere 
variation  of  a  turn  '  death  is  a  boon  for  one  who  has 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  victorious  foe  '  which  meets 
us  in  the  declamations,  Seneca's  plays,  Lucan, 
Statius,  SiUus,  Martial,  and  perhaps  Tacitus.^ 

Classes  in  the  schools  were  large,*  and  when  thirty 
students  had  worked  their  will  upon  a  theme,  the 
positions  of  those  whose  turn  was  yet  to  come  cannot 
have  been  enviable.  There  was  a  tendency  in  such 
cases  to  content  oneself  with  giving  a  new  dress  to  a 
point  already  made  by  a  predecessor.  A  glance  at 
Seneca's  book  will  prove  that  mere  variation  of  this 
kind  was  accounted  a  merit,  and  this  point  of  view 
has  left  plain  marks  on  the  literature.  Ovid's  weakness 
in  this  direction  is  notorious,  but  there  are  several 
others  in  our  period  who  find  it  impossible  to  resist 

1  Contr.  2.  2.  8. 

"  Cp.  Quint.  Decl.  Min.  328  (p.  291  R.)  with  Sen.  Phoen.  386,  Ep. 
66.  27,  Luc.  8.  76,  Stat.  Theb.  3.  705. 

3  Suet.  Tib.  61  :  cp.  Sen.  Conir.  7.  i.  25,  Thy.  246  sqq.,  Med.  1018, 
Luc.  2.  511,  Stat.  Theb.  11.  717,  Sil.  7.  71,  Mart  3.  21  {TsiC.Hisi.  3.66). 

*  Juv.  7.  151  classis  numerosa. 


14        SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

the  temptation  to  touch  up  anew  some  thought  of 
which  they  are  particularly  enamoured.  The  reader 
will  find  a  shocking  example  at  the  opening  of  Lucan's 
Pharsalia,  pilloried  by  Fronto  in  an  amusing  letter 
to  his  imperial  pupil/  to  which  his  editor  appends 
the  comment  '  as  if  Fronto  could  complain  of  such 
behaviour  ! ' — so  great  the  gulf  that  may  open  between 
preaching  and  practice  !  In  other  cases  the  know- 
ledge that  the  cream  of  the  declamation  had  already 
been  skimmed  led  to  the  introduction  of  strained 
and  bombastic  ideas.  My  quotations  from  Seneca's 
declamation  extracts  have  suppHed  the  reader  with 
some  glaring  instances  of  this  fault,  against  which 
Quintilian  often  warns  his  readers.  It  abounds  in  the 
literature  of  our  period,  which  indeed  owes  to  this 
drawback  more  than  any  other  the  neglect  from  which 
it  suffers  to-day.  Tacitus  himself  cannot  be  wholly 
acquitted  of  it. 

It  is  possible  that  the  well-known  Silver  tendency 
of  prose  style  to  encroach  upon  that  of  poetry  came 
from  the  same  source.  Even  Quintilian  regards  themes 
of  an  imaginative,  almost  poetic,  character  as  ad- 
missible if  certain  necessary  safeguards  are  observed  ;  2 
Seneca  quotes  passages  which  are  mere  prose  paraphrases 
of  Virgil, 3  and  the  famous  declamation  of  '  the  Poor 
Man's  Bees  '  *  makes  much  use  of  the  fourth  Georgic. 
When  we  find  Quintilian  complaining  that  declaimers 

1  AdM.  Ant.  de  Ora(.,  p.  157  N. 

*  Quint  2.  10.  5  quid  ergo?  numquam  haec  supra  fidem  et  poetica, 
ut  uere  dixerim,  themata  inuenibus  tractare  permittamus,  ut  ex- 
spatientur  et  gaudeant  materia  et  quasi  in  corpus  eant  ? '  (6)  erit 
optimum;  sed  certe  sint  grandia  et  tumida,  non  stulta  etiam  et 
acrionbus  oculis  intuenti  ridicula. 

Contr.  7.   I.  27  nox  erat,  et  omnia  canentia  sub  sideribus  muta 
erant(  =  Aen.  8.  26  sqq.)  ;   cp.  Suas.  3.  4  and  Georg.  i.  427  sag. 

*  See  p.  276.  -T  /    77 


THE  POINTED  STYLE  15 

think  only  of  the  passage  they  are  declaiming,  not 
the  whole  case,i  and  remember  too  the  professor 
who  gave  away  his  case  for  the  sake  of  one  figure 
of  speech,  we  think  of  the  similes  which  Statius 
elaborates  into  short  idylls — though  here,  as  already 
hinted,  the  readings  may  have  been  mainly  responsible. 
Enough  has,  I  trust,  been  said  to  estabhsh  the  im- 
portance of  the  question  of  environment  in  regard 
to  the  writers  of  our  period,  to  satisfy  the  reader  that 
no  criticism  of  their  work  can  be  fair  and  adequate 
which  contents  itself  with  an  examination  into  intrinsic 
merits  and  leaves  unappreciated  the  vigour  and 
independence  which  men  needed  to  enable  them, 
in  spite  of  the  temptations  of  an  education  that  was 
httle  else  than  the  plaything  of  thoughtless  and  self- 
satisfied  fashion,  to  leave  behind  them  writings  that 
were  full  of  human  interest,  practical  wisdom,  sugges- 
tiveness,  and  inspiration  for  posterity — a  solid  con- 
tribution to  the  Hterature  that  is  for  all  time. 

In  this  connexion  it  may  be  well  to  remind  the 
reader  that  the  style  which  I  call  pointed  was,  after  all, 
one  obviously  adapted  to  the  Roman  temperament, 
the  Roman  language.  It  was  not  of  course  the  peculiar 
product  of  Italian  soil.  Traces  of  such  a  style  are 
discernible  in  more  than  one  branch  of  later  Greek 
hterature.  One  can  hardly  conceive  a  more  apposite 
adjective  for  it  than  the  argutus  with  which  Cicero 
has  labelled  one  of  the  Asian  styles  of  oratory,^  which 
he  further  describes  as  characterized  by  the  pre- 
dominance  of   thoughts   neat   and   attractive   rather 

^  Quint.  5.  13.  31  ut  duett  occasione  dicendi  non  respiciant  quid 
dixerint,  dum  locum  praesentem,  non  totam  causam,  intuentur. 

*  Brut.  325  genera  Asiaticae  dictionis  duo  sunt  :  unum  sententiosum 
et  argutum,  sententiis  non  tarn  grauibus  et  seueris  quam  concinnis  et 
uenustis.     He  names  one  Menecles  as  an  exponent  of  this  style. 


i6        SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

than  deep  or  dignified,  obviously  using  his  epithet 
in  much  the  same  sense  as  I  use  mine.  Outside 
oratory,  he  goes  on  to  observe,  the  same  tendency 
was  represented  by  the  historian  Timaeus  :  we  know 
from  other  testimony  that  this  writer  was  devoted 
to  the  '  routing  out  of  some  new  conceit.'  ^  The 
Romans,  with  their  acuteness  of  mind,  their  instinct 
for  assonance,  their  language  so  adapted  for  the 
development  of  terse,  clean-cut  sentences,  were  likely 
to  make  the  most  of  any  hints  they  found  in  their  Greek 
models.  The  fragments  of  a  typical  Roman  like 
Cato  show  that  Cicero  was  fully  justified  in  claiming 
for  him  the  title  argutus.^  Those  who  know  Varro 
only  from  his  philological  and  agricultural  work  will 
perhaps  be  surprised  to  find  him  mentioned  in  this 
context,  though  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  prefaces  to 
the  De  Re  Rustica  do  contain  some  points.  It  is 
however  of  the  Menippean  satires  that  I  am  here 
thinking,  the  fragments  of  which,  though  preserved 
to  us  only  by  the  dullest  of  grammarians  and  lexico- 
graphers, reveal  nevertheless  clear  traces  of  a  pointed 
style  admirably  adapted  to  the  Petronian  lightness 
and  gaiety  of  their  matter.  That  Hortensius  used 
point  is  clear  from  Cicero's  account  of  his  oratory,^ 
and  Cicero's  own  earlier  speeches  show  a  marked  taste 
for  it.  Of  this  he  was  afterwards  to  a  large  extent 
cured,  not  perhaps  so  much  through  the  restraining 
influence  of  his  Rhodian  teacher  Molo — the  cause  he 
himself  seems  to  suggest  in  a  passage  of  the  Brutus  * — 

^  De  Suhlim.  4.  i. 

*  Brut.  65. 

'  L.c.  326  habebat  Meneclium  illud  studiuni  crebrarum  uenustarum- 
que  sententiarum. 

*  §  316  is  dedit  operam  .  .  .  ut  nhms  redundantes  nos   et   supra 
fluentes  iuuenili  quadam  dicendi  impunitate  et  licentia  reprimeret. 


THE  POINTED  STYLE  17 

as  by  the  growing  tendency  to  copy  Demosthenes. 
In  general,  too,  I  am  incHned  to  think  that  it  was  this 
ambition  to  rival  the  Greeks  of  the  best  period,  what 
one  may  call  the  earliest  form  of  classicism,  that 
checked  until  far  on  into  the  Augustan  age  the  develop- 
ment of  a  peculiarly  Roman  trait.  In  Sallust,  where 
imitation  of  the  most  mannered  of  Greek  historians 
is  combined  with  the  cult  of  Cato  and  archaic  Latin, 
we  get  a  style  that  bears  at  least  as  much  resemblance 
to  that  of  Silver  prose  as  it  does  to  that  of  Thucydides. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  EPIC 

OVID'S  friend,  Albinovanus  Pedo,  belongs 
I  distinctly  to  the  Augustans,  but  one  of  his 
poems,  from  which  the  elder  Seneca  quotes 
twenty-three  hexameters  ^  describing  the  emotions  of 
the  soldiers  who  sailed  the  North  Sea  under  Ger- 
manicus  in  a.d.  i6,  dates  from  our  period  and  deserves 
notice  as  an  early  specimen  of  what  Warton  called,  a 
propos  of  Addison's  Campaign,  the  'gazette  in  poetry.' 
The  metre  is  monotonous,  the  rhetoric  quite  like  that 
of  the  declamation  fragments  among  which  Seneca 
cites  it :  one  could  hardly  want  a  better  bridge  from 
Virgil  and  Ovid  to  Silver  Epic. 

Marcus  Annaeus  Lucanus,^  son  of  the  elder  Seneca's 
youngest  son  Mela,  was  born  at  Corduba  in  a.d.  39 
and  educated  at  Rome.  He  learned  philosophy  from 
Cornutus,  and  won  his  spurs  as  a  writer  by  a  panegyric 
of  Nero  read  in  a  competition  which  formed  part  of 
the  emperor's  new  festival  of  a.d.  60.  For  some 
time  he  was  in  favour  at  court,  held  a  quaestorship 
and  an  augurate,  and  read  pubhcly  a  portion  of  the 
Pharsalia.  Then  came  a  change,  and,  things  going 
from  bad  to  worse,  the  poet  flung  himself  into  the 
disastrous  Piso  conspiracy,  on  the  discovery  of  which, 

1  Sen.  Suas.  i.  15. 

2  The  MSS.  have  preserved  two  biographies,  one  of  which  is  prob- 
ably based  on  that  contained  in  the  De  Viris  Illustribus  of  Suetonius. 
For  Statius'  birthday  poem  see  p.  119. 

18 


THE  EPIC  19 

after  a  vain  attempt  to  save  himself  by  incriminating 
his  mother,  he  committed  suicide,  April  30,  a.d.  65. 
Of  the  considerable  literary  output  with  which  Statins 
and  the  later  biography  credit  Lucan,  and  which 
includes  Silvae  ^  and  ballet  librettos,  the  unfinished 
epic  alone  has  reached  us. 

After  a  lengthy  and  flattering  invocation  of  Nero, 
the  poet  describes  the  causes  of  the  war,  the  characters 
of  Caesar  and  Pompey,  the  corruption  of  the  age. 
Action  starts  with  the  passage  of  the  Rubicon,  but 
we  halt  again  for  a  catalogue  of  troops  and  a  picture 
of  the  panic  at  Rome,  with  many  portents  and  pre- 
dictions. The  first  two  hundred  lines  of  the  next  book 
continue  to  mark  time  :  then  we  see  Cato  counselling 
Brutus  and  remarrying  Marcia,  Caesar  capturing 
Corfinium,  but  faiHng  to  enclose  Pompey  at 
Brundusium.  Caesar's  doings  at  Rome  and  his  siege 
of  Marseilles,  with  the  naval  battle  won  there  by 
D.  Brutus,  occupy  the  third,  his  campaign  in  Spain, 
the  capture  of  Antonius'  army  in  Illyricum,  the 
defeat  and  suicide  of  Curio,  the  fourth  book.  Book 
Five  narrates  the  visit  of  Appius  Claudius  to  the 
Delphic  oracle,  the  mutiny  of  Caesar's  troops,  his 
dash  across  the  Adriatic  in  a  fishing  boat,  Pompey's 
parting  from  Cornelia.  Book  Six  is  devoted  to  the 
blockade  of  Dyrrachium  and  the  younger  Pompey's 
attempt  to  ascertain  the  future  from  the  evoked  spirit 
of  a  fallen  soldier.  Pharsalia  fills  Book  Seven ;  Pompey's 
flight,  assassination,  and  burial  Book  Eight.  Cato 
is  the  hero  of  Book  Nine,  full  justice  being  done  to  his 
passage  of  the  waterless  and  serpent-haunted  desert. 

^  For  the  meaning  of  this  word  see  p.  118.  The  complete  list  is 
as  follows  :  Iliacon,  Catachthonion,  Laudes  Neronis,  Orpheus, 
Saturnalia,  Siluarum  (libri)X,  tragoedia  Medea  {imperfecta),  salticae 
fabulae  XIV,  epigrammata,  Pharsalia. 


20        SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

The  unity  of  the  book,  already  the  longest  of  Jhem  all, 
is  broken  by  the  closing  scene  in  which  the  head  of 
his  rival  is  brought  to  Caesar.  Book  Ten  describes  the 
victor  at  Alexandria,  breaking  off,  after  a  long  account 
of  his  entertainment  by  Cleopatra,  in  the  middle  of  the 
nationalist  rising. 

Of  Gains  Valerius  Flaccus  Setinus  Balbus  we  know 
only  that  he  dedicated  his  epic  on  the  Argonautic 
expedition  to  Vespasian, ^  was  a  member  of  the  college 
of  fifteen  priests  that  had  charge  of  the  Sibylline 
books  2  and  so  must  have  been  a  man  of  wealth  and 
standing,  was  almost  certainly  alive  in  a.d.  79,  when 
the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  which  seems  to  inspire  one 
of  his  similes  ^  occurred,  and  is  spoken  of  by  Quintilian 
somewhere  about  a.d.  92  as  a  writer  whose  death  had 
recently  been  a  severe  loss  to  Roman  letters.^ 

The  extant  poem,  after  a  brief  invocation,  introduces 
us  to  the  usurper  Pelias,  proposing  to  Jason  the 
quest  of  the  Golden  Fleece.  The  ship  Argo  is  built 
and  the  flower  of  Greece  join  the  enterprise.  Sacrifices 
are  offered  to  the  gods,  two  prophet  Argonauts  make 
cryptic  utterances  as  to  the  issue  of  the  voyage,  and 
night  falls  on  the  heroes  in  bivouac  beside  their  ship. 
At  daybreak  Jason  bids  farewell  to  his  parents,  a 
catalogue  of  Argonauts  is  given,  in  the  order  of  sitting 
to  row,  Acastus,  the  son  of  Pelias,  slips  down  stealthily 
to  join  them,  and  they  sail.  The  scene  shifts  to 
Olympus,  then  to  the  cave  of  Aeolus,  where  Boreas 

1  Arg.  I.  7  sqq. 

*  The  tripod  {cortina)  of  1.  6  is  explained  by  Servius*  statement 
(on  Aen.  3.  332)  that  every  member  of  this  priesthood  kept  one  in 
his  house. 

'  Arg.  4.  507  sicut  prorupti  tonuit  cum  forte  Veseui  \  Hesperiae 
letalis  apex  :  uixdum  ignea  montem  \  torsit  hiemps,  iamque  Eoas  cinis 
induit  urbes. 

*  Inst.  Or.  10.  I.  90  tnultum  in  Valeria  Flacco  nuper  amisinius. 


THE  EPIC  21 

reports  intruders  on  the  sea.  All  the  winds  are  let 
loose  and  the  voyagers  are  in  great  peril  until  Neptune 
calms  the  tempest.  The  first  book  closes  with  the  death 
of  Jason's  parents,  who  kill  themselves  to  escape  the 
vengeance  Pelias  proposes  to  exact  for  the  loss  of  his 
son.  In  Book  Two  the  fall  of  night  fills  the  heroes  with 
awe  and  alarm,  which  the  helmsman  Tiphys  allays, 
and,  coming  to  Lemnos,  they  are  entertained  by  the 
women  there,  who  in  frenzy,  inspired  by  Venus,  have 
murdered  all  their  menfolk  save  King  Thoas,  whom 
his  daughter  Hypsipyle  enabled  to  escape.  She 
reigns  now  in  his  stead,  and  for  love  of  her  Jason 
tarries  until  compelled  by  the  taunts  of  Hercules  to 
sail  on.  At  Troy  the  latter  saves  the  Princess  Hesione 
from  the  sea-monster  to  whom  she  has  been  exposed 
a  prey,  and  the  book  closes  with  the  entertainment 
given  the  heroes  by  King  Cyzicus  in  the  city  that  bears 
his  name.  In  the  next  book,  Tiphys  falHng  asleep 
by  night,  the  ship  drifts  back  to  Cyzicus,  and  landing 
there  as  in  some  new  country  they  are  mistaken  for 
pirates  and  attacked.  They  slay  many  of  their  old 
hosts,  Jason  Cyzicus  himself.  Learning  the  truth  at 
dawn,  they  bury  the  dead,  but  suffer  strange  apathy 
and  depression  until  a  prophet  Argonaut  instructs  them 
how  to  make  atonement.  In  Mysia  they  lose  Hercules 
and  his  page  Hylas,  for  the  boy  is  dragged  down  by 
a  nymph  into  a  spring  and  his  master  stays  searching 
for  him  until  the  heroes  after  hot  debate  resolve  to 
sail  on.  In  Book  Four  Pollux  kills  King  Amycus  in  a 
boxing  match,  Calais  and  Zetes  free  Phineus  from  the 
odious  persecution  of  the  Harpies  :  he  in  return  tells 
them  how  to  proceed.  They  pass  through  the  '  clashing 
rocks '  into  the  Euxine,  and  there,  at  the  beginning 
of  Book  Five,  lose  one  of  their  prophets  and  Tiphys 


22       SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

too,  in  whose  place  they  choose  Erginus,  and  so  come 
at  length  to  Colchis.     We  go  back  a  Uttle  now,  to 
be  told  of  visions  warning  King  Aeetes  to  watch  the 
Fleece  and  wed  his  daughter  Medea,  of  her  betrothal 
to  Styrus  the  Albanian,  of  the  banishment  of  Aeetes' 
brother  Perses  because  he  advised  the  restoration  of 
the  Fleece,  of  his  return  with  an  army  that  is  even 
now  encamped  by  the  city.     Jason,  coming  up  from 
the  river,  meets  Medea  and  is  guided  by  one  of  her 
maids  to  the  presence  of  the  king,  who  promises  him 
the  Fleece  in  return  for  help  against  Perses  and  mean- 
while honours  him  at  a  banquet.     Book  Six  is  mainly 
concerned  with  the  battle,  in  which  Perses  is  routed, 
but  with  this  theme  is  interwoven  that  of  Medea's 
love  for  Jason.i    Book  Seven  opens  with  the  king's 
base  refusal  to  yield  the  prize  until  Jason  has  sown 
the  teeth  of  a  dragon  in  furrows  ploughed  by  fire- 
breathing    bulls.     All    day    Medea    roams    restlessly 
about  the  palace,  sleeping  only  to  dream  of  horrors. 
At   the  request   of  Jason's  protectress  Juno,   Venus 
disguises    herself    as    the    sorceress    Circe,    sister    of 
Aeetes,  and  wedded  to  a  Western  prince,  and  brings 
about  a  tryst  between    Medea    and    Jason    at    the 
grove    of    Hecate.     There  the  hero,   made  invulner- 
able by  fire  and  taught  the  secret  for  the  conquest 
of  the  warriors  that  spring  up  from  the  dragon  seed, 
swears  eternal  remembrance  of  his  saviour  and  asks 
her    hand   in    marriage.     Next    day    he    successfully 
accompHshes    the    allotted   tasks.      In    Book    Eight 
the  princess,  fearful  of  her  father's  suspicions,  is  fleeing 
from  the  palace  when  she  meets  Jason,  and  by  lulling 
to  sleep  the  dragon  guard  of  the  Fleece  enables  him 
to  carry  off  the  treasure.     Argo  drops  swiftly  down 

*  For  the  treatment  of  which  see  p.  45. 


THE  EPIC  23 

stream,  and,  though  the  hue  and  cry  is  raised,  the 
heroes,  accepting  the  advice  of  Erginus  to  sail  home 
by  the  Danube,  reach  the  island  of  its  delta  and 
celebrate  the  nuptials  of  their  leader  and  his  be- 
loved. The  banquet  that  follows  is  interrupted  by 
the  approach  of  her  brother  and  her  fiance  in  a 
hastily  built  fleet.  Juno  raises  a  storm,  in  which 
Styrus  perishes,  but  Absyrtus  blockades  his  enemies, 
who  presently  talk  of  purchasing  the  Fleece  at  the 
cost  of  surrendering  Medea.  The  poem  breaks 
off  in  the  midst  of  the  description  of  her  frenzied 
resentment. 

Publius  Papinius  Statins  was  born  at  Naples,  son 
of  a  schoolmaster  in  that  city,  who  had  won  prizes 
in  poetic  contests  held  there  and  in  various  cities 
of  Greece. 1  He  lived  to  see  his  boy  repeat  his  per- 
formance so  far  as  Naples  was  concerned,  but  died 
before  his  victory  in  one  of  the  contests  organized 
by  Domitian  at  Alba.^  Sons  of  schoolmasters  were 
not  usually  rich,  and,  although  Statius  once  mentions 
an  Alban  estate,^  Juvenal  implies  that  he  got  his 
living  by  the  composition  of  ballet-librettos.*  Some- 
where about  A.D.  94  he  was  living  in  Rome,  but  con- 
templating a  return  to  Naples,^  and  it  is  thence  that 
he  writes  the  preface  to  his  fourth  book  of  Silvae, 
in  A.D,  95 — not  long,  one  gathers,  before  his  death. 
His  epic  on  the  Seven  against  Thebes  occupied  him 
twelve    years    and    was    probably    completed    about 

*  Cp.  for  the  facts  as  to  the  older  Statius  Silu.  5.  3.  129  sqq.,  146 
sqq.,  for  the  poet's  birthplace  ih  3.  5.  81. 

*  Stlu.  5.  3.  225  sqq. 

*  Silu.  3.  I.  61  sqq. 

*  Juv.  7.  86  cum  f regit  [Statius)  subsellia  uersu,  \  esurit,  intactam 
Paridi  nisi  uendit  Agauen. 

*  Silu.  3.  5.  12,  13. 


24       SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

A.D.  92,  that  on  Acliilles  seems  to  have  been  begun 
about  95  and  was  never  jEinished.^ 

The  first  book  of  the  Thehais,  after  invoking 
Domitian,  proceeds  to  tell  how,  at  the  summons  of 
Oedipus,  the  Fury  brings  strife  upon  his  unnatural 
sons,  so  that  they  decide  to  rule  a  year  in  turns,  and 
Polynices,  going  forth  first,  comes  to  Argos,  at  the 
same  time,  it  chances,  as  Tydeus.  King  Adrastus  finds 
them  wrangUng  outside  his  palace,  and,  recognizing 
them  as  the  men  to  whom  an  oracle  bids  him  wed  his 
daughters,  offers  them  hospitahty.  In  Book  Two 
the  spirit  of  the  murdered  Laius  prompts  Eteocles 
to  resolve  upon  breaking  the  compact  with  his  brother, 
the  Argive  King  celebrates  his  daughters'  nuptials, 
and  Tydeus,  the  time  being  come  for  Polynices  to 
rule  at  Thebes,  proceeds  thither  as  his  ambassador. 
Eteocles,  not  content  with  insulting  refusal,  sets  men 
in  ambush  to  slay  him  on  his  way  back.  Of  these, 
Tydeus  kills  all  save  Maeon,  who  returning  to  Thebes, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  next  book,  speaks  his  mind 
to  Eteocles  and  then  stabs  himself.  At  Argos,  the 
seer  Amphiaraus  long  refuses  to  reveal  the  issue  of  the 
war  now  imminent  :  roused  at  last  by  the  abuse  of  the 
atheist  Capaneus  he  predicts  disaster.  The  wife  of 
Polynices,  Argia,  persuades  Adrastus  to  help  her 
husband.  Book  Four  starts  with  a  long  catalogue 
of   the   invaders,  then   passing   to   Thebes,  describes 

^  The  preface  to  the  first  book  seems  to  have  been  penned  about 
A.D.  92  (see  p.  117),  and  he  there  describes  himself  as  still  anxious 
for  the  Thebais,  though  it  has  now  left  his  hands  :  adhuc  pro  Thebaide 
mea,  quamuis  me  reliquerit,  timeo.  The  twelve  years  which  it  has 
occupied  are  mentioned  Theh.  12.  811  (0  mihi  bissenos  niultum 
uigilata  per  annos,  \  Thehai!).  The  Achilleis  he  is  beginning  as  he 
writes  the  seventh  poem  of  the  fourth  book  of  the  Siluae  (see  11.  23, 
24  primis  mens  ecce  metis  |  haeret  Achilles),  the  preface  to  which 
belongs  to  a.d.  95. 


THE  EPIC  25 

omens  of  evil  and  ambiguous  answers  given  by  the 
ghost  of  Laius  to  the  prophet  Tiresias  :  at  the  end  we 
see  the  invaders  brought  to  a  standstill  near  Nemea 
by  a  drought  that  dries  up  all  streams  save  one,  to 
which  the  Lemnian  Hypsipyle,  now  a  slave  and  the 
nurse  of  King  Lycurgus'  infant  son  Opheltes,  conducts 
them.  Book  Five  contains  her  story  of  the  Lemnian 
massacre,  related  to  the  generals  of  the  host,  the 
death  of  her  young  charge,  left  meanwhile  at  play 
in  the  meadows  and  attacked  by  a  snake,  and  the 
protection  afforded  her  by  the  grateful  warriors 
against  the  natural  resentment  of  Lycurgus.  Book 
Six  is  concerned  with  the  boy's  funeral  and  funeral 
games.  At  the  beginning  of  Book  Seven  comes  the 
Theban  catalogue,  enumerated  by  an  old  squire  who 
has  accompanied  Antigone  to  the  ramparts  :  then  the 
Argives  arrive,  and  Jocasta  comes  out  with  her  daughters 
to  intercede  with  Polynices.  He  is  showing  signs  of 
yielding,  when  the  chance  attack  of  two  tame  tigers 
on  the  chariot-driver  of  Amphiaraus  precipitates  a 
battle  which  ends  with  that  hero's  disappearance, 
chariot  and  all,  in  a  sudden  opening  of  the  earth. 
In  Book  Eight  we  see  exultation  at  Thebes,  chagrin 
among  the  invaders,  who  appoint  Theodamas  in  the 
place  of  the  lost  prophet.  Presently  the  Thebans 
make  a  sortie,  and  although  they  are  unsuccessful, 
Tydeus,  the  chief  cause  of  their  failure,  is  himself 
mortally  wounded  by  Melanippus  :  the  book  closes 
with  the  picture  of  him  as  he  hes  greedily  gnawing 
at  the  severed  head  of  his  foe,  whom  he  has  had 
strength  enough  to  spear.  Book  Nine  contains  the 
deeds  of  Hippomedon  and  the  death  of  the  youthful 
Parthenopaeus  :  the  former  long  defends  the  body  of 
Tydeus,  but  is  lured  from  it  by  false  tidings  (brought 


26      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

by  the  disguised  Fury),  and  returns  only  to  find  it 
carried  off  by  the  foe.  He  revenges  his  friend  by 
much  slaughter,  especially  at  the  river  Ismenos, 
whose  god  presently  joins  in  the  fray  :  Hippomedon 
just  escapes  drowning  to  die  by  a  very  hail  of  darts 
upon  the  bank.  Book  Ten  shows  us  a  body  of 
Thebans  posted  about  the  Argive  camp  to  prevent  men 
who  have  fared  so  ill  from  stealing  away  under  cover 
of  night.  But  it  is  these  on  the  contrary  that  issuing 
forth  fall  upon  them  whilst  they  sleep,  and  after  slaying 
many  return  safe — all  but  two,  who  stay  behind 
searching  for  the  bodies  of  Tydeus  and  Parthenopaeus, 
and  are  caught  with  their  grim  burdens  on  their 
shoulders.  At  dawn  the  city  is  hotly  attacked,  and, 
as  Tiresias  maintains  that  only  the  death  of  the  '  last 
of  the  dragon  brood  '  can  save  it,  the  young  Menoeceus, 
Creon's  son,  flings  himself  from  the  ramparts  to  death. 
And  now  Capaneus,  when  he  has  all  but  scaled  the 
wall,  is  struck  down  by  a  thunderbolt.  In  Book 
Eleven  Polynices  proposes  that  the  issue  be  decided 
by  a  single  combat  between  himself  and  his  brother. 
Eteocles  is  at  first  aghast,  but  the  sonless  Creon 
hounds  him  on,  and  soon  he  is  as  deaf  to  the  appeals 
of  Jocasta  as  his  brother  to  Antigone's.  Both  perish, 
and  Creon,  becoming  king,  forbids  the  burial  of  the 
invaders'  bodies  :  a  sentence  of  exile  which  he  pro- 
nounces upon  Oedipus  is  commuted,  through  the 
intercession  of  Antigone,  to  mere  retirement  to 
Cithaeron,  Book  Twelve  describes  the  burial  of  the 
Theban  dead,  the  departure  from  Argos  of  the  women- 
folk of  the  slain  leaders  bent  upon  the  recovery  of  their 
bodies,  the  announcement  to  them  by  a  fugitive  of 
Creon's  decree,  the  resolve  of  all  save  Argia  to  seek 
help  of  Theseus,  the  meeting  of  Argia  and  Antigone 


THE  EPIC  27 

over  the  body  of  Polynices,  their  discovery  and  arraign- 
ment before  the  king,  the  advance  and  victory  of 
the  Athenians,  and  the  death  of  the  tyrant  at  the 
hands  of  Theseus,  concluding  with  a  brief  allusion  to 
the  obsequies  of  the  leaders  and  an  envoi  full  of  respect- 
ful regard  for  the  Aeneid. 

The  Achilleis  too  begins  with  an  invocation  to 
Domitian,  then  introduces  us  to  Thetis,  alarmed  by 
the  vision  of  Paris  saihng  home  with  Helen,  and  on 
her  way  to  visit  Achilles  in  the  cave  of  his  tutor  Chiron. 
She  spends  the  evening  with  him,  then,  whilst  he  is 
asleep,  carries  him  to  the  island  of  Scyros,  where  he 
is  to  find  refuge,  as  a  '  sister  of  Achilles,'  at  the  court 
of  Lycomedes.  A  gHmpse  of  the  Princess  Deidamia 
wins  the  boy's  consent  to  don  woman's  attire,  the  King 
accepts  the  charge,  and  the  mother  departs,  leaving 
the  ladies  of  the  court  delighted  with  their  new  mate. 
We  pass  now  to  the  arming  of  Greece,  the  revelation 
by  Calchas  of  Achilles'  whereabouts,  the  despatch  of 
Ulysses  and  Diomedes  to  fetch  him.  He  in  the 
meantime  has  secretly  won  the  love  of  Deidamia, 
and  is  soon  singled  out  from  among  his  fair  companions 
by  the  '  man  of  many  wiles.'  The  marriage,  and  the 
appeal  of  the  bride  to  be  allowed  to  follow  her  consort 
to  Troy,  conclude  the  first  book.  The  second  is  in- 
complete, breaking  off  where  Achilles,  sailing  with 
his  saviours  to  the  army,  has  entertained  them  with 
an  account  of  Chiron's  methods  of  instruction. 

Of  the  early  history  of  Titus  Catius  Silius  Italicus  ^ 
we  know  nothing.  He  was  a  pleader,^  and  a  Stoic,^ 
held  the  consulship  in  a.d.  68,^  and  next  year,  when 

1  The  full  name  appears  only  in  the  inscription  C.I.L.  6.  1984. 

2  Plin.  Ep.  3.  7.  3,  Mart.  7.  63.  7. 
'  Epictet.  Diss.  3.  8.  7. 

*  Phn.  I.e.  9  nouissimus  a  Nerone /actus  est  consul. 


28       SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

the  fall  of  his  friend  the  emperor  Vitellius  was  im- 
minent, took  part  in  the  negotiations  between  him  and 
Vespasian's  brother  Sabinus.^  After  this,  he  governed 
Asia, 2  and  spent  his  latter  days  in  retirement  in 
Campania,  where,  finding  himself  aiflicted  with  an 
incurable  ailment,  he  starved  himself  to  death  probably 
about  A.D.  102.^  Pliny  devotes  a  letter  to  an  account 
of  his  life  and  end.  Martial  was  one  of  liis  proteges 
and  often  mentions  or  addresses  him  in  his  epigrams.* 
One,  that  belongs  probably  to  a.d.  92,  implies  that 
his  Punica,  an  epic  on  the  Hannibalic  war  which  has 
come  down  to  us,  was  by  that  time  accessible  to 
ordinary  readers.  ^  Since  however  the  emperor  described 
at  the  end  of  Book  Fourteen  as  having  restored  peace 
and  '  checked  the  unbridled  craze  for  plundering  the 
world  '  ^  is  surely  Domitian's  successor  Nerva,  it  seems 
likely  that  only  part  of  the  poem  was  pubhshed  so 
early. 

The  summary  of  the  poem  is  a  summary  of  the 
Punic  war  plus  the  regular  padding  of  these  literary 
epics.  Saguntum  occupies  two  books,  Hannibal's 
march  .into  Italy  a  third,  Ticinus  and  Trebia  a  fourth, 
Trasimene  a  fifth.  Book  Six  contains  mainly  the 
story  of  Regulus,  told  by  an  old  retainer  to  the  son  of 

^  Tac.  Hist.  3.  65  uerba  uocesque  duos  testes  habebant,  Cluuium 
Rnfum  et  Silhim  Italicum. 

^  Plin.  I.e.  3  mentions  the  governorship,  and  the  evidence  of  coins 
points  to  tenure  under  Vespasian. 

*  PHn.  I.e.  §§  6  and  2.  Mommsen  assigns  the  third  book  of  the 
letters  to  a.d.  101/102,  but  the  point  is  much  disputed  and  most 
authorities  seem  to  put  the  death  of  Martial,  which  is  the  subject  of 
another  of  its  letters,  as  late  as  104. 

*  Plin.  Ep.  I.e.,  Mart.  4.  14,  7.  63,  8.  66,  9.  86,  11.  48. 

*  7.  63.  I  perpetui  numquam  moritura  uolumina  Sili  \  qui  legis 
et  Latia  carmina  digna  toga  ! 

*  LI.  686  sqq. :  at  ni  cura  uiri  qui  nunc  dedit  otia  mundo  \  effrenum 
arreret  populandi  cuncta  furorem  \  nudassent  auidae  terrasque  fretumque 
rapinae. 


THE  EPIC  29 

that  hero  of  the  first  Punic  war,  a  fugitive  from  battle. 
Book  Seven  is  Fabius  :  Cannae  and  the  events  im- 
mediately preceding  or  succeeding  it  occupy  the 
next  three,  Nine  and  half  Ten  being  allotted  to  the 
actual  battle.  The  fatal  sojourn  at  Capua  is  the 
main  theme  of  Book  Eleven,  and  Twelve  describes 
Hannibal's  first  defeat  (at  Nola),  his  capture  of 
larentum,  and  vain  attempt  to  raise  the  siege  of 
Capua  by  attacking  Rome.  Book  Thirteen  is  divided 
Detween  the  fall  of  Capua  and  the  Homeric  evocation 
jcene  in  which  Scipio  converses  with  his  dead  father 
md  mother  and  various  ghosts  of  mythologic  or  historic 
fame.  Book  Fourteen  is  wholly  Sicihan,  and  ends 
kvith  the  capture  of  Syracuse  by  Marcellus.  Fifteen 
iescribes  Scipio's  victories  in  Spain,  Fabius'  recapture 
Df  Tarentum,  the  death  of  Marcellus,  the  battle  of 
VIetaurus ;  Sixteen,  Scipio's  negotiations  with 
Masinissa  and  Syphax  and  the  games  wherewith  he 
lonours  father's  and  uncle's  memory ;  Seventeen, 
;he  crossing  into  Italy,  the  withdrawal  of  Hannibal, 
md  Zama. 

In  examining  the  poems  of  which  the  reader  has 
low  had  a  summary  he  will  find  it  convenient  to  take 
irst  a  number  of  characteristics  more  or  less  common 
;o  them  all.  Nowhere  is  the  influence  of  the  declama- 
:ion  schools  more  manifest ;  they  may  offer  hp  service 
:o  Virgil,  these  poets,  but  they  sacrifice  at  the  altars 
Df  Ovid  :  they  are  convinced  that  nothing  that  is 
lot  epigrammatic  or  allusive  can  possibly  attract  a 
■eader.  So  Lucan  thinks  that  the  best  way  of  bringing 
lome  to  us  the  vexation  of  becalmed  sailors  is  to 
:onfront  us  with  the  paradox  '  All  hope  of  shipwreck 
vanished  now  !  '  ^  and  Valerius,  wishing  to  say  some- 

^  Pilars.  5.  455  naufragii  spes  omnis  abit. 


30      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

thing  distinctive  about  an  Argonaut,  remembers  that 
he  was  father  to  the  Ajax  slain  by  Minerva  with  one 
of  her  father's  bolts,  and  pens  the  conundrum  : 

He  that  will  some  day  sorrow  o'er  a  bolt 
Not  of  Jove's  hurling.^ 

Thebes  had  seven  gates,  Niobe  fourteen  cliildren,  and 
Statins  thinks  it  poetic  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  there 
can  be  two  funeral  processions  per  gate.^  If  Silius 
is  less  strained  and  emphatic,  and  so  easier  to  read, 
it  is,  I  fear,  his  lack  of  inventive  power  rather  than 
his  judgment  we  must  thank.  The  declamations 
loved  horrors,  and  these  epics  are  full  of  them.  The 
depravity  of  Lucan's  tastes  in  this  direction  is  for- 
tunately something  unique,  but  even  a  lover  of  the 
beautiful  like  Statins  lingers  morbidly  over  the  effects 
of  a  serpent's  bite  on  a  cliild's  body,^  or  the  ghastly 
aspect  of  the  mutilated  Oedipus.*  Lucan  is  full  of 
the  ranting  hyperbole  of  the  schools.  Statins  is  little 
better :  even  the  comparatively  sane  Valerius  will 
have  the  height  of  Caucasus  appreciably  increased  by 
a  heavy  fall  of  snow.^  The  declaimer  neglected  the 
needs  of  the  case  in  order  to  enlarge  on  some  aspect 
in  the  treatment  whereof  he  hoped  to  shine,  and  these 
poets  let  the  episode  extinguish  the  poem..  Sometimes 
it  is  a  permissible  one,  that  is  developed  at  inexcusable 
length.  A  Roman  could  hardly  be  expected  to  ignore 
the  omens  that  were  said  to  have  heralded  the  Civil 
War,  but  Lucan,  not  content  with  sixty  lines  of  common 
Livian  portent,  calls  in  a  soothsayer,  an  astrologer, 

^  Arg.  I.  372  tortum  non  a  loue  fuhnen  O'ileus  \  qui  gemet. 
^  Theb.  3.  198  bina  per  ingentes  stipahant  funera  portas. 

*  Tlieb.  5.  596  sqq. 

*  Theb.  I.  71,  72  ;    11.  582  sqq. 

*  Arg.  6.  611,  ubi  ipse  gelii  magnoque  incanuit  imbre  |  Caucasus  et 
sumnias  abiit  hibernus  in  Arcios. 


THE  EPIC  31 

and  an  inspired  matron — a  hundred  hexameters 
more  !  ^  An  epic  poem  must  have  its  storm  :  Virgil's 
is  a  httle  long,  seeing  how  powerful  a  few  hues  proved 
in  Homer,  but  at  any  rate  he  brings  us  out  into  the 
^ale,  gasping  for  breath  and  every  moment  more 
uneasy  about  the  damage  the  good  ship  is  sustaining. 
In  Lucan — apt  disciple  of  Ovid — we  never  get  outside 
at  all,  but  watch  through  double  panes  all  the  contorted 
:apers  that  the  tumbled  waters  of  a  conjurer  poet 
:an  cut.^  Often  however  the  episode  is  absolutely 
irrelevant .  Compare  for  instance  that  of  the  Lemnian 
massacre  in  Valerius  and  Statins.^  In  the  former 
ill  is  nearly  in  order,  would  be  wholly  so  had  he  but 
5een  his  way  to  making  Hypsipyle  tell  the  story 
nstead  of  keeping  the  Argonauts  waiting  impatiently 
n  the  offing  while  he  did  it  himself.  But  in  Statins 
the  excrescence  is  inexcusable,  and  we  feel  that  it  is  not 
3nly  Hypsipyle  who  forgets  her  duty.  Lucan  makes 
Curio's  invasion  of  Africa  the  occasion  for  a  seventy- 
ine  account  of  the  wresthng-match  in  which  Hercules 
:here  met  Antaeus.^  After  Hercules  and  the  Argonauts 
lave  parted  company,  Valerius  cannot  resist  the 
temptation  to  make  him  proceed  to  Caucasus  by 
and  and  unbind  Prometheus — just  as  the  Argo  reaches 
:he  vicinity.  Here,  it  is  true,  the  pains  at  which 
:he  poet  is  to  give  the  affair  some  kind  of  connexion 
A^ith  his  theme  by  making  the  heroes  find  pieces  of 
rock  and  ice  falHng  around  them,  even  see  the  dying 
culture  float  over  their  heads, ^  seem  to  argue  an  uneasy 
:onscience.  Sihus  knows  no  such  qualms,  unworthy 
Df  the  author  of  an  epic  that  runs  to  seventeen  books. 

1  Phars.  I.  522  sqq.,  584  sqq.,  639  sqq.,  674  sqq. 

»  Phars.  5.  593-653- 

'  Arg.  2.  82-310,  Theb.  5.  29-498. 

*  Phars.  4.  593-655-  ''  Arg.  5.  154-176. 


32      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Another  rhetorical  trick  from  which  Valerius  alone 
of  these  writers  is  tolerably  free  is  that  of  obtruding 
the  author's  personality  on  his  reader  by  means  of 
apostrophe  or  moralizing.  In  the  old  epics  it  was 
only  in  the  invocation  that  a  poet  dared  come  before 
the  curtain,  and  Virgil  kept  pretty  well  to  their  rules. 
Lucan  and  Statins  are  for  ever  apostrophizing,  the 
former  often  at  great  length.  SiUus  and  he,  Stoics  first 
and  poets  afterwards,  naturally  indulge  in  a  good 
deal  of  what  in  prose  would  be  called  diatribe.  But 
even  Statins  must  round  off  the  rupture  between  the 
sons  of  Oedipus  with  a  twenty-hne  tirade  on  the 
theme,  '  Yet  what  was  it  to  be  king  in  those  simple 
days  ?  How  small  the  empire  for  which  they 
wrangled  !  '  ^ 

The  truth  is  that  none  of  these  poets  let  go  an 
opportunity  for  the  display  of  erudition.  All  geography, 
in  particular,  comes  handy  to  them.  If  in  Pharsalia 
the  scene  shifts  to  Thessaly,  in  Punica  to  Sicily,  we 
get  a  gazetteer-like  account  of  those  countries.^  The 
passage  of  Symplegades  is  followed  in  Valerius  by  a 
twenty-hne  account  of  Euxine,  and  his  catalogue  of 
Scythians  reads  like  an  extract  from  Pliny's  geographical 
books. ^    Lucan  tells  us  that  Pompey  visits  a  witch 

What  time  beneath  our  hemisphere 
The  sun  brings  midday  :  * 

of  what  use  to  know  the  lore  of  the  Antipodes  if  you 
are  to  say  with  the  rest  of  the  world  that  a  thing 
happened  at  midnight  ?  Sihus  represents  his  Scipio 
consoHng  a  spirit  by  the  promise  of  funeral  honours  : 

1  Theh.  I.  144-164.  2  Luc.  6.  333-412,  Sil.  14.  11-78. 

3  Arg.  4.  711-732,  6.  33-162. 

*  Phars.  6.  570  alia  \  node  poli,  Titan  medium  quo  tempore  duett  j 
sub  nostra  tellure  diem. 


THE  EPIC  33 

in  order  to  improve  on  Virgil's  Aeneas  and  Palinurus 
episode,  he  has  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  Roman 
general  an  inept,  but  learned,  account  of  the  various 
methods  by  which  the  nations  dispose  of  the  bodies 
of  their  dead.^ 

The  action  of  the  old  epic  included  in  its  sphere 
heaven  as  well  as  earth,  and  Virgil's  deeply  rehgious 
mind  readily  accepts  the  tradition.  Lucan  rejects  it, 
but  even  his  unconventional  genius  cannot  entirely 
dispense  with  the  supernatural  element,  and  the  fine 
description  of  the  heavenward  flight  of  Pompey's 
disembodied  spirit "  is  some  compensation  for  the 
tedious  episodes  of  the  oracle  and  the  evocation. ^ 
His  successors  too  tend  to  include  the  nether  realm 
within  the  compass  of  their  action,  Valerius  dwelling 
on  the  passage  to  Elysium  of  Jason's  parents  and 
peophng  the  boxing  match  with  the  ghosts  of  Amycus' 
victims  released  to  see  his  downfall,*  Statins  opening 
the  eighth  book  with  the  sudden  appearance  of 
Amphiaraus  amidst  the  shades.^  But  what  in  Lucan 
served  as  a  substitute  is  with  them  a  supplement : 
as  authors  of  orthodox  mythological  epic  they  claim 
the  right  to  move  Olympus  too.  Juno  and  Pallas 
support  Jason  against  the  Sun,  Aeetes'  father,  and 
Mars,  to  whom  the  Fleece  is  dedicate.*^  Juno  hates 
Thebes  as  furiously  as  she  ever  hated  Troy,''  whilst 
Venus  protects  dear  Harmonia's  city,^  and  Mars 
possesses  a  roving  commission  to  stir  up  conflict 
everywhere.^  Bacchus  and  Hercules,  too,  do  their 
best  for  the  country  of  their  birth  :    the  former  it  is 

1  Pun.  13.  468-487.  2  Phavs.  9.  i  sqq. 

3  Phars.  5.  71-224,  6.  434-825-  *  ^^8-  i-  827-851,  4.  258-260. 

*  Theh.  8.  1-126.  "  Val.  Fl.  i.  503  sqq. 
'  Stat.  Theh.  i.  250  sqq.  ^  L.c.  3.  263  sqq. 

*  L.c.  3.  229  sqq.,  7.  i  sqq. 


34      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

that  causes  the  drought  of  Book  Four/  but  the  other 
seems  hampered  by  the  knowledge  that  some 
authorities  make  him  out  an  Argive.  Meeting  Pallas 
in  the  field  he  chivalrously  retires  before  his  former 
patroness,  leaving  the  unhappy  Theban  whom  he  has 
been  protecting  to  face  Tydeus  alone. ^  The  lesser 
deities  play  quite  a  role  in  these  later  epics.  Boreas 
warns  Aeolus  of  the  presence  of  the  Argonauts,  Pan 
starts  the  attack  of  the  Cyzicans  on  their  old  guests,' 
Virtus  and  Pietas  take  a  part  in  the  action  of  the 
Thebais^  Cold  though  the  convention  of  machinery 
necessarily  leaves  us,  it  is  only  fair  to  observe  that 
Valerius  uses  it  with  some  effect.  The  Hylas  episode, 
wliich  conveniently  removes  that  Hercules  whose 
name  was  firmly  settled  in  the  fist  of  Argonauts  and 
yet  must  necessarily  overshadow  that  of  the  leader 
Jason,  was  no  invention  of  the  Roman's,  but  he  seems 
first  to  have  lent  it  probability  by  connecting  the 
loss  of  Hylas  with  Juno's  famous  grudge.^  In  Silius 
the  thing  is  at  its  worst  :  can  one  forgive  an  imagina- 
tion that  makes  the  river  god  of  Trebia  play  Scamander 
to  the  Achilles  of  a  Roman  consul,  Aeolus  loose 
Volturnus  to  blow  dust  in  the  face  of  the  Romans, 
Neptune  raise  a  storm  against  Hannibal  as  he  leaves 
Italy — to  calm  it  at  the  request  of  Venus,  fearful  lest 
Scipio  lose  the  chance  of  winning  Zama  !  ^ 

The  similes  in  these  poets  are  Alexandrian  rather 
than  Homeric — they  are  used  as  an  end  in  themselves, 
ornaments  of  style  and  not  mere  aids  to  description. 
Most  of  them  aim  at  painting  a  pretty,  or  at  least 

1  Stat.  Theb.  4.  652  sqq.  :  cp.  7.  145  sqq. 

*  L.c.  8.  500  sqq.  ^   Val.  Fl.  i.  574  sqq.,   3.  46  sqq. 

«  ro.  780  sqq.,   II.  457  sqq. 

6  Arg.   3.  487  sqq. 

s  Pun.  4.  573  sqq.,  9.  491  sqq.,  17.  236  sqq. 


THE  EPIC  35 

vivid,  picture  in  the  miniature  of  a  few  lines  or  parad- 
ing the  author's  intimate  knowledge  of  legend. 
Occasionally  these  tendencies  coalesce :  there  is 
much  happiness,  for  instance,  in  Valerius'  comparison 
of  the  as  yet  innocent  Medea  to  Proserpine  *  ere 
yet  she  gazed  on  Hell  and  her  beauty  lost  its  lustre.'  ^ 
Generally  speaking,  however,  it  is  the  '  learned ' 
similes  that  please  us  least — and  yet  it  is  the  more 
poetic  authors,  Valerius  and  Statins,  that  most  affect 
them,  a  melancholy  example  of  the  ruinous  effect 
a  convention  may  have  on  Latin  poetry.  These 
two  agree  also  in  the  tendency  to  use  similes  about 
twice  as  frequently  as  the  other  pair.  Those  of 
Statins,  indeed,  would,  if  united,  occupy  almost  the 
space  of  an  average  book  of  the  Thehais.  In  another 
point  Valerius  shows  better  judgment  than  any  of 
the  others  :  he  is  much  more  sparing  than  they  with 
similes  of  more  than  four  hues  long,  and  has  none  of 
the  monsters  with  seven  lines  or  more  of  which  the 
other  epics  supply  a  full  thirty.  Prohxity  of  this 
kind  is  of  course  excusable  when  it  is  due  to  the  desire 
to  make  simile  and  situation  tally  very  exactly, 
but  our  poets  seldom  try  this  effect,  and  their  long 
similes  are  generally  due  to  digression  on  a  side  issue. 
Statins  is  particularly  hable  to  this  fault.  Oedipus 
emerges  from  retirement  :  it  is  as  though  Charon 
rose  from  Styx, 

And  meanwhile,  with  no  ferryman  to  ply. 
The  arrears  grew  swift,  and  all  along  the  banks 
The  ages  waited.^ 

The     Thebans    are    cowed    by     Hippomedon,     hke 

^  Arg.  5.  346  priusquam\palluit  et  uiso  pulsus  decor  omnis  Auerno. 
"  Theb.  1 1 .  591  interea  longiim  cessanie  magistro  \  crescat  opus  totisque 
exspectent  saecula  ripis. 


36      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

small  fry  that  lurk  in  the  seaweed,  in  terror  of  a 
dolphin — 

And  rise  not  till  he  to  the  surface  bounds 
Eager  to  race  some  bark  descried  afar.^ 

Pliny  records  this  habit  of  the  animal's,  and  the 
interest  taken  about  this  time  in  natural  history 
is  often  reflected  in  these  similes.  Juba  dehvers 
an  attack  which  he  has  no  intention  of  pushing, 
and  Lucan  thinks  of  the  ichneumon  feinting  with 
its  tail. 2  Jason,  standing  apart  from  his  comrades 
in  the  arena,  is  like  a  straggler  from  the  great  proces- 
sion of  migrant  birds,  left  to  the  mercy  of  winter 
blast  or  summer  glare. ^  Medea  roams  restless  over 
the  palace  : 

E'en  so  a  hound  that  long  hath  share  enjoyed 
Of  master's  bed  and  welcome  at  his  board. 
Sick  with  strange  illness,  frenzy's  harbinger. 
Ere  it  departs  roams  whining  o'er  the  house.* 

Valerius,  one  may  note  in  passing,  particularly  affects 

this  way  of  illustrating  a  state  of  mind,  though  perhaps 

the  best  specimen  to  be  found  in  our  poets  is  a  passage 

where  Statins  compares  the  return  of  the  sole  survivor 

of  the  ambuscade  to  a  shepherd  whose  herd  has  fallen 

a  prey  to  wolves  :  he  dare  not  face  his  master,  but 

With  wailing  fills  the  countryside,  and  stands 

Sick  at  the  silence  of  the  spacious  fold 

Or  calls  the  long  roll  of  his  slaughtered  bulls.* 

He  jests  at  scars  who  never  felt  a  wound,  and  Homer's 
audience,  largely  consisting  of  men  who  had  had 
practical  experience  of  battle,   would  have  resented 

1  Theb.  g.  246  nee  prius  eniersi  quam  summa  per  aequora  flexus\ 
emicet  et  uisis  malit  certare  carinis  :  cp.  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  9.  24. 

2  Luc.  4.  724  sqq. 

'  Val.  Fl.  7.  559  solus\stabat,  ut  extremis  desertus  ab  orbibus  ales,\ 
quern  iayn  lassa  dies  Atistrique  ardentis  harenae\aut  quern  Riphaeis 
errantem  rursus  ad  arces\nix  et  caerulei  Boreae  ferus  abstulit  horror. 

*  Val.  Fl.  7.  124  sqq.  *  Theb.  3.  51,  52. 


THE  EPIC  37 

any  attempt  on  a  poet's  part  to  display  ingenuity 
in  the  matter  of  the  blows  his  doughty  warriors  deal 
and  endure.  With  them  a  wound  was  a  wound, 
and  as  such  in  itself  an  interesting  topic.  The  Romans 
wrote  for  men  who  had  acquired  in  the  arena  a  taste 
for  refined  butchery  and  had  to  make  concessions 
accordingly.  Even  Virgil  regales  us  with  the  pictures 
of  Ebysus,  with  a  firebrand  dashed  in  his  face  and 
his  long  beard  in  flames,  or  Maeon,  whose  chest  is 
torn  open  by  a  spear  which  then  pierces  the  arm  of 
his  brother  as  he  rushes  up  in  support. ^  Before  him 
Ennius  had  represented  the  trumpet  of  a  decapitated 
soldier  completing  the  call  which  he  had  just  begun 
to  sound, 2  after  him  Ovid  filled  the  battle  scenes  of  the 
Metmiiorphoses  with  similar  extravagances,  and  found 
apt  pupils  in  Lucan  and  Statins.  The  latter,  indeed, 
actually  borrows  Ennius'  trumpeter,  and  elsewhere 
makes  an  overwrought  soldier  slash  at  a  hand  that 
lies  severed,  but  still  playing  with  the  sword-hilt 
on  the  ground.^  Lucan  describes  the  blood  of  a  man 
pierced  by  two  javehns  coming  opposite  ways  as 
pausing  in  doubt  wliich  way  to  flow,  and  stops  to 
note  that  the  crash  of  two  colhding  warships  is  hardly 
deadened  by  the  body  of  a  man  that  has  been  caught 
between  them.*  Valerius  and  SiHus  do  not  often 
err  in  this  way,  though  the  latter  has  at  least  one  shock- 
ing lapse,  when,  after  describing  how  a  fugitive's 
head  is  sliced  off  by  his  pursuer,  he  proceeds  : 

There  at  its  owner's  feet  straightway  it  fell : 
The  body,  by  its  frenzied  rush  borne  on, 
Crashed  down  beyond  it.^ 

^  Aen.  12.  300,  10.  336  sqq. 

*  Ann.    519    cumqiie    caput    caderei,    carmen    tuba    sola   peregit. 
Zola  has  copied  the  absurdity  in  La  Debdcle  ii.  7. 

«  Theb.  II.  56;    8.  443,  444.  *  Phars.  3.  589;    656,  657. 

*  Pun.  13.  246  sqq. 


38      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

The  last  of  the  common  features  to  which  I  shall 
allude  is  the  remarkable  length  to  which  these  poets 
carry  the  practice  of  imitation.  That  they  should 
make  free  use  of  Homer,  as  all  but  Lucan  do,  is  hardly 
surprising.  Simple  translation  from  the  Greek,  in- 
volving, as  it  might,  the  conquest  for  Italy  of  some 
immortal  phrase  or  thought,  was  always  looked 
upon  at  Rome  as  quite  a  considerable  achievement : 
imitation  of  the  Greek  orators  had  a  definite  place  on 
the  rhetoric  syllabus.  Valerius  borrows  but  slightly 
outside  battle-scenes  :  he  misunderstands  his  original 
once,  with  his  '  horses  of  Mars,  Panic,  and  Fear,'  ^ 
which  obviously  represents  a  passage  of  the  Iliad, 
where  the  god  bids  two  henchmen,  who  bear  these 
names  (or  rather  their  Greek  equivalents),  get  ready 
his  horses.  Statins  and  Silius  borrow  wholesale : 
both  have  a  river  battle,^  both  prefer  the  invocation 
inferno  of  the  Eleventh  Odyssey  to  the  descent  of 
Aeneid  Six ;  ^  the  games  in  Statins  are  Homeric 
rather  than  VirgiHan  and  his  catalogues  contain 
versions  of  lines  from  Homer's.  It  is  the  Virgil 
imitation  of  these  epics  that  awakes  our  surprise. 
There  is,  of  course,  no  question  of  plagiarism  :  the 
jewels  of  the  Aeneid  were  too  famous  for  any  one  to 
hope  to  wear  them  as  his  own.  As  impossible,  surely, 
is  the  theory  that  our  poets  were  so  steeped  in  Virgil 
and  devoid  of  imagination  that  they  saw  everything 
through  the  medium  of  his  epic.  The  clue  is  perhaps 
to  be  found  in  the  passage  of  the  Thehais  where  an 
episode  closely  resembhng  that  of  Virgil's  Nisus  and 
Euryalus  is  rounded  off,  as  that  is,  by  an  apostrophe 

^  Arg.  3.  89,  90  (  =  Hom.  //.  15.  119). 
^  Theb.  9.  225  sqq.,  Pun.  4.  573  sqq. 
'  Theb.  4.  419  sqq.y  Pun.  13.  400  sqq. 


THE  EPIC  39 

to  the  spirits  of  the  two  friends.  '  Weak  though  my 
voice  be/  says  the  poet,  'still  shall  your  fame  live, 
and  Euryalus  and  Nisus  welcome  you  to  their  side  !  '  ^ 
No  attempt  here  at  anything  but  frank  confession 
of  one's  literary  model,  and  this  is  perhaps  the  principle 
that  underlies  the  phenomenon  in  general.  The 
Alexandrians  had  treated  the  Homeric  poems  similarly  : 
Virgil  himself  had  culled  phrases,  even  lines,  from 
Ennius.  The  borrowing  is  not  confined  to  that  of 
stock  episodes  such  as  storms,  games,  banquets, 
funerals,  and  so  forth.  Lucan,  who  is,  generally  speak- 
ing, the  most  independent  of  these  writers,  cannot 
describe  the  armies  getting  ready  for  Pharsalia  without 
using  language  that  reminds  us  of  the  Latin  prepara- 
tions for  the  war  with  Aeneas,  and  his  harbour  of 
Brundusium  is  remarkably  like  the  Libyan  cove 
of  Aeneid  One.^  Hylas  and  Parthenopaeus  were  in 
the  story  long  before  the  time  of  Valerius  and  Statius, 
but  in  describing  their  deeds  the  latter  are  clearly 
inspired  by  the  recollection  of  Virgil's  lulus.^  The 
attack  on  Tydeus  is  mentioned  by  Homer  :  as  we 
read  it  in  Latin  we  recognize  a  doublet  of  that  most  in- 
effective ambush  of  the  eleventh  Aeneid.'^  There  can  be 
hardly  one  striking  episode,  one  golden  thought  of  that 
poem  but  finds  an  echo  in  at  least  one  of  our  epics.  The 
vanquished' s  only  hope — despair  of  victory  says  Aeneas, 
and  so  Caesar's  ferryman  throws  him  the  paradox 

Our  only  hope  is  to  despair  of  passage. ^ 

1  Theh.  lo.  445  sqq. 

-  Phars.  7.  139  sqq.  [=Aen.  7.  626  sqq.),  2.  616  sqq.  {  —  Aen.  i. 
162  sqq.). 

^  Val.  Fl.  3.  183  sqq.  (  =  Aen.  9.  590  sqq.),  Stat.  Theb.  9.  808  sqq. 
=  Aen.  9.  646  sqq.). 

*  Stat.  Theb.  2.  496  sqq.  {  =  Aen.  11.  522  sqq.). 

^  Luc.  5.  574  desperare  uiam  et  uetitos  conuertere  cursus  \  sola 
saltis  (cp.  Aen.  2.  354). 


40      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Aeneas  finds  Hector  sadly  changed  from  the  Hector 
that  once  returned  from  the  slaying  of  Patroclus  : 
lo,  in  the  climax  of  her  misery,  eUcits  from  Valerius 
the  similar  thought — 

Ah,  how  changed 
From  that  fair  heifer  she  at  first  became.^ 

Some  day  'twill  be  a  pleasure  to  look  back  on  this,  Aeneas 
tells  his  men,  and  Adrastus  tells  Tydeus  and  Eteocles, 
found  wrangling  at  his  doors,  it  may  be  so  with  them  : 

May  be  this  strife  but  heralds  love  to  come, 
Its  memory  then  a  pleasure.  ^ 

Aeneas  invites  his  hearers  to  learn  from  one  crime 
of  the  Greeks  the  character  of  the  whole  nation  :  in 
Sihus  a  prisoner,  about  to  recount  to  Hannibal  the 
story  of  the  battle  of  Cremona,  says. 

Thou  shalt  come  to  know 
From  but  one  combat  all  the  Fabian  house. ^ 

One  at  least  of  Virgil's  episodes  is  echoed  in  each  of 
these  epics,  that  in  which  twin  brothers,  indistin- 
guishable often  to  their  parents,  meet  Pallas  in  the 
field,  who  '  made  grim  distinction  betwixt  them,' 
cutting  off  the  hand  of  one  and  the  head  of  the  other.* 
Lucan  and  Statius  reproduce  both  points,  Valerius 
contents  himself  with  the  parental  quandary,  but 
Silius,  eager  to  outdo  every  one,  produces  a  characteris- 
tically tasteless  '  comedy  of  errors.'  Saguntum  can 
hold  out  no  longer,  most  of  its  people  are  making  an 
end  of  themselves,  and  whilst  two  twins  are  slaying 
each  other,  their  mother  rushes  between  them,  crying 

^  Ayg.  4.  398  qualis  et  a  prima  quantum  mutata  iuvenca  (cp.  Aen. 
2.  274  sqq.). 

^  Stat.  Theb.  1.  472  forsan  et  has  venturus  amor  praemiserit  iras  \ 
ut  meminisse  iuuet  (cp.  Aen.  i.  203). 

'  Pun.  7.  39  nosces  Fabios  ceriamine  ab  uno  (cp.  Aen.  2.  65,  66). 

*  Aen.  10.  390  sqq. 


THE  EPIC  41 

to   Eurymedon,    '  Nay,    Lycormas,   rather  slay   me,' 

to  Lycormas,  '  What  frenzy  this,  Eurymedon  ?  '  ^ 

Yet  only  a  superficial  reader  can  fail  to  observe 

amidst  so  much  that  is  common  stock  clear  traces 

of    the   individuality    of    these    writers.     Lucan    has 

genius,  but  no  judgment,   and  is  conspicuous  for  a 

certain    independence    of    spirit    of    which    we    have 

already  seen  the  influence  in  his  decisive  rejection  of 

divine  machinery  and  severe  restraint  in  the  matter 

of  Homer  reminiscences.     He  abounds  in  forcible  and 

pathetic  lines,  and  conceives  fine  thoughts,  which  he  1 

too  often  spoils  by  putting  them  in  the  mouths  of  | 

unsuitable   persons   or   repeating    them    ad   nauseam 

or  vouchsafing  them  only  after  his  reader  is  too  tired 

to    appreciate    them.     Age    might    have    set    much 

right  here,   but  it  could  hardly  have  remedied  the 

fact  that  Lucan  lacked  not  merely  Virgil's  sensibility 

to  beauty,  but  even  that  very  shallow  conception  of  •, 

it  that  fell  to  the  lot  of  Ovid.     Is  there  in  all  the 

Pharsalia,  crowded  with  descriptions  as  it  is,  a  really 

beautiful    scene  ?     In    all    its    well-oiled    hexameters 

a   really   tuneful   line  ?     As   for  its   composition,   its 

defects  can  be  summed  up  very  briefly  :    half  the 

episodes  would  be  better  away,  and  there  are  three 

heroes.     For  the  formal  hero  is  overshadowed  by  the 

villain  Caesar,  and  the  person  whom  we  are  expected 

to  admire  is — Lucan  himself.     The  most  favourable 

specimen  I  can  quote  is  from  the  panegyric  of  Pompey, 

put  in   the   mouth   of   Cato   and   much   admired   by 

Macaulay — 

He  that  is  dead  was  one  that  never  saw, 

As  saw  our  ancestors,  where  power  must  halt, 

Yet,  in  this  age  that  lacks  regard  for  right, 

*■  See  Luc.  3.  605,  606  ;    Val.  Fl.  i.  367,  368  ;    Stat.  Theb.  9.  292 
sqq.  ;   Sil.  2.  636  sqq. 


42      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Served  us  :  his  greatness  nought  our  freedom  harmed  ; 

And  he  alone,  when  all  the  mob  was  fain 

To  be  his  slave,  plain  citizen  would  stay. 

He  ruled  the  senate — when  it  ruled  the  world, 

Claimed  nought  by  right  of  war,  would  even  have  Rome 

Free  to  withhold  what  he  would  have  her  give. 

Grew  over  rich,  yet  brought  into  the  state 

More  than  he  kept  himself,  knew  when  to  sheathe 

The  sword  he  'd  rushed  to  seize,  would  sooner  be 

Soldier  than  statesman,  yet  in  arms  wooed  peace. 

Gladly  took  office,  gladly  laid  it  down. 

Pure  was  his  house,  from  all  debauchery  free, 

Ne'er  by  its  master's  splendour  changed  for  worse. 

And  so  his  name  throughout  the  world  was  known 

And  held  in  honour  :  well  it  served  our  state.^ 

Valerius,  Statius,  Silius — all  pay  Lucan  the  tribute 
of  imitation.  Quintilian  praises  his  spirit  and  epi- 
grammatic eloquence,^  Tacitus  classes  him  with 
Virgil  and  Horace.-^  Numerous  MSS.  testify  to  his 
popularity  in  the  Middle  Ages,  Dante  ranks  him  fourth 
of  the  poets  and  copies  a  hst  of  snakes  from  Book 
Nine,^  Petrarch  often  quotes  him.  Tasso's 
Gerusalemme  and  the  plays  of  Garnier,  Corneille, 
and  Hughes  use  him  freely  :  the  battle  between 
Arthur  and  Modred  in  The  Misfortunes  of  Arthur  is 
mainly  amplification  of  points  from  Book  Seven. 
Marlowe  translated  Book  One,  May  the  historian  of 
the  Long  Parliament,  the  whole  poem  into  verse.  The 
republicanism  that  attracted  May  no  doubt  excluded 
our  poet  from  the  Delphin  series,  but  the  Revolution 
brought  him  honour,  and  one  of  his  lines  was  engraved 
on  the  swords  of  the  National  Guards.  Coleridge 
thought  the  epic  lacking  in  taste,  but  a  wonderful 


^  Phars.  9.  190-203. 

*  Quint.  10.  I.  90  Lucanus  ardens  et  concitatus  et  sententiis  clarissi- 

us. 

^  Dial.  20. 

■•  Infern.  4.  88-90,  24.  85  sqq.  {=Phars.  9.  700  sqq.). 


THE  EPIC  43 

work  for  so  young  an  author/  whilst  Shelley  has, 
at  least,  one  passage  inspired  by  it  and  highly  re- 
miniscent of  its  style  : 

All  my  being, 
Like  him  whom  the  Numidian  seps  did  thaw 
Into  a  dew  with  poison,  is  dissolved  .^ 

In  Valerius  we  have,  I  consider,  a  true  poet,  and  on6 
who  in  his  appreciation  of  the  power  which  the  simple 
and  natural  can  exercise  upon  our  emotions  and 
imagination  falls  little  short  of  Lucretius  and  Catullus 
themselves.  That  his  judgment  was,  in  many  respects, 
sounder  than  that  of  his  rivals  the  reader  will  have 
already  gathered  from  what  has  been  said  on  general 
characteristics.  He  compares  favourably,  too,  with 
Apollonius  of  Rhodes,  whose  Argonautica  he  has 
followed  pretty  closely  as  far  as  the  plan  of  his  poem 
is  concerned,  and  occasionally  translates.  On  the 
whole,  however,  Apollonius  is  his  foil  rather  than  his 
model.  The  Greek  writer  was  a  professor  first  and  a 
poet  afterwards  :  the  geographical  dissertation  with 
which  his  Jason  answers  Medea's  question  as  to  the 
whereabouts  of  his  native  land  is  almost  enough  in 
itself  to  prove  that.^  In  Valerius  the  very  question 
is  full  of  poetry  : 

Tell  me,  when  thou  art  gone. 
What  quarter  of  the  heavens  am  I  to  watch  ? 

The  speaker  does  not  pause  for  reply,  passing  rapidly 
on  to  contrast  the  happy  future  that  awaits  him  with 
the  death  to  which  her  father  may  condemn  her, 
which  for  his  sake  she  will  gladly  meet,^  but  when  the 

*  Table-talk,  Sept.  2,  1833. 

*  Prometheus  Unbound  3.  i.  39  sqq.  ^  Arg.  3.  1070-1094. 

*  ^^S-  7-  478  sqq. 


44     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

answer  comes,  it  is  the  only  one  a  hero  and  a  lover 
could  vouchsafe  : 

Think' st  thou  I  care  for  aught,  if  I  lose  thee  ? 
Away  from  thee,  can  suffer  any  cUme  ? 
To  the  King's  mercy  rather  give  me  back 
And  cancel  all  thy  spells  :    I  like  them  not.^ 

Apollonius,  indeed,  is  inferior  here  not  merely  to 
Valerius,  but  to  himself  :  the  theory  that  he  never 
sinks,  advanced  by  the  author  of  the  treatise  On  the 
Sublime,  is  not  quite  sound.  Many  of  the  Latin 
poet's  victories  are  won  in  fairer  fight.  In  particular, 
Apollonius'  account  of  the  passion  of  Medea  is  reckoned 
the  most  brilHant  part  of  his  work,  and  Virgil  paid 
it  the  tribute  of  imitation  in  the  fourth  Aeneid.  Yet 
Valerius  manages  to  treat  the  same  theme  with  origin- 
ahty  and  power :  in  psychological  probabiHty  his 
version  seems  to  me  superior  to  anything  that  has 
reached  us  from  antiquity.  In  Apollonius  love  comes 
to  Medea  in  the  conventional  Greek  way  :  Cupid's 
dart  takes  immediate  effect,  and,  if  for  a  moment 
the  victim  thinks  it  is  mere  pity  that  she  feels,  by  the 
time  her  sister  Chalciope  comes  to  plead  for  Jason 
she  has  realized  the  truth  :  there  remains  only  the 
struggle  with  maidenly  shame  and  fihal  piety. ^ 
Valerius  does  not,  of  course,  ignore  these  powerful 
emotions,  but  he  concentrates  on  the  dehneation 
of  the  actual  dawn  of  love.  In  substituting  for  the 
wound  of  Cupid's  arrows  '  poison '  which  Medea 
absorbs  by  handling  the  trinkets  of  Venus,  worn  by 
Juno  in  her  disguise  as  Chalciope,  he  is,  of  course, 
merely  varying  the  de\'ice  by  which  his  model  at  the 
end  of  the  first  Aeneid  prepares  his  reader  for  Dido's 

1  Arg.  7.  490-492. 

'  See  Arg.  3.  275  sqq.,  466  sqq.,  636  sqq.,  741  sqq. 


THE  EPIC  45 

fatal  passion.^  But  whereas  Virgil  then  leaves  us, 
during  the  next  two  books,  to  imagine  the  gradual 
smouldering  of  the  flames  to  the  conflagration  that 
meets  us  in  the  opening  lines  of  Book  Four,  Valerius 
enables  us  to  follow  the  infatuation  of  his  heroine 
almost  step  by  step.  Her  first  sight  of  Jason  makes 
no  shght  impression,^  but  she  is  not,  as  in  Apollonius, 
present  at  the  levee,  nor  is  she  mentioned  in  the  course 
of  the  banquet  at  the  end  of  Book  Five.  It  is  not 
until  the  fighting  has  begun  that  we  meet  her  again, 
in  the  middle  of  Book  Six.^  Juno,  disguised  as 
Chalciope,  has  brought  her  to  the  ramparts,  where 
she  recognizes  Jason  and  begins  to  observe  the  part  he 
takes  in  the  fray. 

As  first  the  wind  toys  lightly  with  the  leaves 
And  sways  with  gentle  puffs  the  topmost  boughs : 
Anon  the  hapless  ships  its  fury  feel :  * 

so  grows  Medea's  love  at  the  sight  of  his  bravery. 
She  fails  to  note  her  companion's  departure,  leaning 
recklessly  over  the  battlement,  lost  in  the  hero's 
fortunes — 

Oft  as  the  stalwart  chiefs  in  serried  ranks 
Beset  the  hero  and  the  storm  of  darts 
Burst  on  him  only,  e'en  so  oft  herself. 
By  stone  and  javelin  there  is  buffeted.^ 

Other  combatants  do  glorious  deeds,  die  glorious 
deaths  :  her  eyes  are  for  Jason  only,  and  when  nightfall 
ends  the  battle  and  she  leaves  the  walls,  faint  and 
worn,  thoughts  of  him  obsess  her.^  Another  pleasing 
passage  in  Apollonius  is  the  trysting-scene,'  but  there 

^  Arg.  6.  668  sqq.,  Aen.   i.  717  sqq.  ^  Arg.   5.  373  sqq. 

*  Arg.   6.  477  sqq.  *  Arg.   6.  664-666. 

^  Arg.  6.  683-685.  «  Arg.  6.  757  sqq. 
''  Ayg-  3-  955  sqq. 


46      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

is  nothing  in  it  that  seems  to  me  comparable  with  the 
feehng  and  imagination  of  these  extracts  from  the 
corresponding  portion  of  Valerius  : 

Even  as  on  flock  and  shepherd  panic  bursts 
At  dead  of  night,  or  in  the  deeps  of  hell 
Darkling  and  voiceless  meet  the  shadow  ghosts  : 
So  in  the  mingled  gloom  of  grove  and  night 
They  twain  bewildered  toward  each  other  drew. 
Like  silent  pines  or  stirless  cypresses 
That  boisterous  Auster  hath  not  ruifled  yet. 

Then,  as  they  rooted  stood,  with  silent  eyes. 
Night  speeding  on,  fain  would  Medea  now 
Have  Jason  lift  his  face,  and  speak  her  first. 

Thus  he.     She,  trembUng,  finds  the  suppliant  done 
And  her  own  answer  due,  nor  sees,  distraught. 
How  to  begin  her  tale,  how  order  it 
And  how  far  take  it,  fain  would  have  all  told 
In  the  first  word— but  shame  and  fear  forbid 
E'en  that  first  utterance. 

Her  speaking  done. 
Now  more  and  more  she  found  her  fancy  roam 
The  deep  seas  o'er,  saw  now  the  Greeks  set  sail 
Without  herself.     'Twas  then  love's  fiercest  pang 
Smote  her  :  she  seized  his  hand,  and  spake  him  low : 
'  Remember  me  :    I  shall  remember  thee, 
Of  that  be  sure  !  '  i 

The  imagination  of  Valerius  is  a  vivid  one,  and  he 
can  express  it  briefly  and  clearly,  to  the  great  ad- 
vantage of  the  pictures  he  has  given  us  of  Argo's 
departure,  with  Jason  cutting  the  moorings  and  the 
sunlight  gleaming  on  the  shields  along  her  bulwarks  ;  ^ 
of  the  first  night  at  sea  : 

The  hour  brought  deeper  terrors,  as  they  saw 
Heaven's  aspect  changed,  mountain  and  countryside 
Snatched  from  their  view,  gross  darkness  all  around. 
Awful  the  very  hush,  the  silent  world. 
The  signs,  the  sky  with  wide-flung  tresses  starred  ;  ^ 


1 


'  "^/S-  7-  400-409,  431-435,  472-477- 

*  ^fg-  I-  488  sqq.  3  Ayg^  2.  38-42. 


THE  EPIC  47 

of  the  nymph  returning  to  her  spring,  her  startled 
face  eloquent  of  the  alarm  with  which  the  sight  of 
Hercules  has  filled  her ;  ^    of  that  hero's  uneasiness 
at  the  absence  of  Hylas,  where  the  similes  come  flying 
fast  and  we  seem  to  feel  the  gloom  of  night  descending, 
hear  the  crash  of  the  forests  he  scours  ;  ^  of  the  despair 
of  the  Argonauts,  as  they  watch  the  pyre  of  their 
steersman,  and  it  '  seems  as  though  'twas  the  ship 
herself  that  was  afire,  and  setting  them  down  in  mid- 
ocean.'  ^    The  composition,  too,  of  the  poem  deserves 
some  praise — a  rare  thing  with  a  Silver  poet.     The 
'  probabihty  '  of  the  story  is  carefully  managed.     In 
Apollonius  the  heroes  take  to  the  water  like  ducks ; 
in  Valerius,  as  we  have  seen,  nightfall  brings  some 
fear.     In  Apollonius  Medea's  hope  that  her  sister  will 
appeal  to  her  for  help  is  no  sooner  fulfilled  than  she 
entertains    thoughts    of    suicide :     in    Valerius    these 
come  more  naturally  at  a  moment  when,  after  fondly 
imagining  that  she  had  conquered  her  weakness,  she 
suddenly  finds  herself  vanquished.*    The  mere  fact 
that  later  books  show  less  care  in  these  matters  is  to 
me  evidence  to  support  the  theory  that  the  poem  was 
left  unfinished.     One  last  point  :   Valerius  has  handled 
with  considerable  skill  a  difficulty  more  or  less  inherent 
in  his  theme,  the  dependence  of  the  hero  on  the  arts 
of  a  woman.     Apollonius,  so  far  from  attempting  to 
gloss  the  matter  over,  records  the  indignation  of  one 
of  the  Argonauts  at   the   mere   thought    of    such   a 
victory.^    The    Latin    Jason    wins    the    prize    fairly 
enough   by   prowess   in   battle :     only   when    Aeetes 

^  Arg.  3.  532  attonitos  referebat  ab  Hercule  uoltus. 

*  L.c.  572  sqq.  (similes  at  577  sqq.,  581  sqq.,  587  sqq.). 

*  Arg.  5.  33  tunc  ipsa  creman\uisa  ratis  medioque  uiros  deponere 
ponto. 

*  ApoU.  Rhod.  3.  801  sqq.,  Val.  Fl.  7.  323  sqq.      ^  Arg.  3.  556  sqq. 


48     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

plays  false  and  has  lost  every  claim  to  sympathy  is 
Medea's  aid  invoked.  Her  drawing  is  not  successful  : 
it  needs  a  world  poet  to  do  justice  to  her  weird  figure, 
at  once  so  human  and  yet  so  supernatural. 

Quintilian's  verdict  on  Valerius  was  given  above  : 
neither  poet  nor  poem  are  mentioned  again  till  Poggio 
in  1417  discovered  at  St.  Gall  a  MS.  containing  the 
first  three  books  and  part  of  the  fourth.  By  the 
time  the  editio  princeps  appeared  in  1474,  MSS.  con- 
taining seven  and  a  half  books  had  become  available  : 
one  used  for  the  Bologna  edition  of  15 19  still  remains 
our  chief  authority  for  the  text.  Quotations  from 
Valerius  are  so  rare  that  a  certain  interest  attaches 
to  any  passage  that  seems  to  derive  even  indirectly 
from  him.  Tasso  when  he  sets  Erminia  on  the  ramparts 
to  watch  the  duel  between  her  lover  Tancredi  and  the 
Saracen  Argante  has  certainly  Ovid's  Scylla  in  mind, 
but  the  words 

sempre  che  la  spada  il  Pagan  mosse 
senti  neir  alma  il  ferro  e  le  percosse.^ 

are  surely  conscious  echo  of  the  passage  about  Medea 
cited  on  p.  45.  Where  did  Rabelais  get  the  Scythian 
nymph  Ora  if  not  from  the  catalogue  of  Book  Six  ?  ^ 
The  elder  Balzac's  knowledge  of  a  passage  where  Jason 
sees  Fame  on  the  banks  of  the  Phasis  calling  the 
youth  of  Greece  to  seek  her  there,  from  which  he  holds 
Malherbe  to  have  borrowed,  may  have  been  derived 
from  an  anthology  :  the  only  Valerius  quotation  I 
have  observed  in  the  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  comes 
from   the   same   episode.^    Some  lines  in   Manzoni's 

^  Ger.  Lib.  6.  63. 

*  Rabelais,  Pantagruel  iv.  38,  Arg.  6.  48  sqq. 

'  Balzac,  Entretiens  xxxi.  ;    Malherbe,  Odes  9.  61  sqq.  ;    Val.  Fl. 
I.  76  sqq.  ;   Burton,  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  i,  2,  3,  14. 


THE  EPIC  49 

Marzo  1821  are  certainly  inspired  by  the  speech 
with  which  Jason  urges  Acastus  to  join  his  enterprise, 
and  this  is  actually  quoted  and  translated  in  the 
Rambler  of  24th  August  175 1.  Coleridge  allows 
Valerius  prettiness  '  in  particular  passages,'  ^  and 
Byron  prefixes  to  some  verses  to  the  Earl  of 
Clare  the  closing  words  of  the  touching  farewell  of 
Hylas. 

Macaulay  found  in  the  Thehais  but  two  hnes  worthy 
of  a  great  poet :  ^  Coleridge  showed  better  judgment, 
holding  Statius  '  a  truer  poet  than  Lucan,  though 
very  extravagant  sometimes.'  ^  The  bombast  to 
which  he  refers  is  the  more  provoking  that  the  offender 
is  really  a  master  of  the  short,  telhng  strokes  of  the 
restrained  artist.  Could  contempt  be  more  effectively 
represented  than  by  the  picture  of  Tydeus  flinging 
away  his  flag  of  truce  as  he  leaves  the  presence  of 
Eteocles,  or  taunting  his  fifty  assailants  with  a 
'  Cowards,  and  too  few  !  '  *  Reluctance,  than  by  that 
of  Hippomedon,  as  he  leaves  his  friend's  corpse,  '  still 
gazing  back  and  ready  for  recall '  ?  ^  Respect  for  a 
teacher,  than  in  the  last  words  of  the  speech  with 
which  Thetis  endeavours  to  persuade  Achilles  to  don 
feminine  attire  :  '  Chiron  shall  never  know  '  ?  ®  The 
sudden  rising  of  the  spectators  at  a  critical  point  of 
the  race,  than  in  the  line,  *  Flashed,  as  they  swept 
to  their  feet,  the  seats  all  bare  '  ?  '  And  there  are  fine 
thoughts  and  images  too.     The  crowd  stands  aghast 


J  Table-talk,  Sept.  2,  1833. 

2  Life  and  Letters  (Nov.  30,  1836)  :   clamorem,  qualis  hello  supre- 
mns  apertis\nrbibus  aut  pelago  iam  descendente  carina  (3.  56,  57). 
^  Table-talk,  I.e. 

*  Theb.  2.  478,  479  ;    668  0  timidi  paucique  ! 

*  Theb.  9.  170.  '  Ach.  i.  274. 
'  Theb.  6.  449  omniaque  excusso  patuere  sedilia  uolgo. 

D 


50     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

over  the  body  of  a  vampire  that  has  preyed  upon  the 
children  of  the  community  : 

After  those  tears  joy's  ecstasy  is  still 
But  wan  and  sickly.^ 

The  march  on  Thebes  finds  Tydeus 

healed  of  his  wounds  and  blithe 
Soon  as  the  trumpet  sounded.^ 

The  Argives,  unable  to  hold  the  funeral  of  Amphiaraus, 
find  comfort  in  calUng  to  mind  his  wisdom, 

As  tho'  thereby  they  rendered  to  the  pyre 

The  flames  and  offerings  due,  the  mournful  rites. 

Or  laid  in  kindly  earth  his  soul  to  rest.^ 

At  the  council,  men  just  promoted  to  the  place  of 
fallen  leaders  : 

Yet  have  no  joy  and  grieve  to  have  climbed  so  high.* 

The  invaders  come  on,  eyes  intent  on  the  walls, 

recking  nought  of  death 
And  blind  to  every  weapon  save  their  own.^ 

Oedipus,  insulted  by  Creon, 

Lets  go  his  daughter  and  his  staff,  and  stands. 
Anger  his  sole  support.^ 

In  Statins  that  sensitiveness  for  which  we  love 
Virgil  verges  sometimes  upon  sentimentality.  Farmers 
lamenting  the  havoc  of  a  storm  find  time  to  pity  those 
it  has  caught  at  sea  ;  after  the  death  of  Tiphys,  the 
Argonauts  fancy  the  very  winds  have  lost  their  vigour.' 
Thetis,  satisfied  with  the  haven  chosen  for  Achilles, 
reminds  the  poet  of  a  bird  that  has  found  a  shady  nook 

1  Theb.  I.  620.  «  Theb.  4.  94,  95. 

»  Theb.  8.  209,  210.  «  Theb.  10.  181. 

6  Theb.  10.  543.  8  Theb.  11.  675,  676. 

'  Theb.  II.  117  sqq.,  8.  212  sqq. 


i 


THE  EPIC  51 

where  neither  cold  nor  snake  nor  man  can  harm  her 

brood, 

and  scarce  upon  the  bough 
Is  lighted,  but  the  tree  hath  won  her  heart.^ 

An  elm  falls,  bringing  with  it  a  vine  that  has  been 

trained  upon  its  branches  : 

Most  grieves  the  elm,  that  now  two  growths  must  miss. 
And,  falling,  sorrows  less  for  her  own  boughs 
Than  the  familiar  clusters  she  must  bruise. - 

There  is  hardly  a  more  tender  passage  in  all  Latin 

poetry   than   the   description   of   the   child   Opheltes 

playing  in  the  meadow  : 

There  on  the  bosom  of  the  springtide  earth 
'Mid  herbage  lush,  now  moves  he  slowly  on 
With  face  thrust  downward,  crushing  as  he  goes 
The  yielding  grasses,  now  for  draughts  desired 
Calls  tearful  to  his  nurse,  then  once  again 
Breaks  into  smiles,  cons  o'er  and  o'er  the  words 
That  wrestle  with  his  infant  lips,  and  marks 
Amazed  the  forest's  din,  or  all  that  comes 
Must  clutch,  or  mouth  agape  inhales  the  day.^ 

Of  Statins'  Greek  models  we  know  little,  and  that 
little  concerns  only  the  Thehais.  The  scholiast  on  one 
passage  *  says  it  came  from  Antimachus,  a  con- 
temporary of  Plato's  and  himself  author  of  an  epic 
on  Thebes  of  which  only  meagre  fragments  have 
reached  us.  The  influence  of  Euripides  we  can 
partially  gauge  ourselves  :  several  fragments  of  the 
Hypsipyle  contain  closely  parallel  passages,  Antigone's 
squire  on  the  wall  comes  from  the  Phoenissae,^  and 
Book  Twelve  contains  some  reminiscences  of  the 
Surplices.  Nothing  could  be  much  worse  than  the 
composition  :   the  first  six  books  drag  terribly,  scenes 

^  Ach.  I.  216  uix  stetit  in  ramis,  et  protinus  arbor  amatur. 

*  Theb.  8.  544  sqq. 

3  Theb.  4.  786  sqq.  *  Theb.  3.  466. 

*  Theb.  7.  243  sqq.,  Phoen.  88  sqq. 


52     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

and  similes  recur,  the  characters  are  very  rudely 
drawn,  the  two  brothers  overshadowed  by  the  other 
chiefs.  In  metre  and  language  Statius  is  a  bolder 
innovator  than  any  predecessor  since  Lucretius. 
His  hexameter,  unlike  that  of  the  others  we  have 
been  considering,  is  Virgilian  rather  than  Ovidian, 
but  has  a  certain  vigorous  tone  of  its  own.  The  list 
of  words  or  meanings  of  words  found  in  his  work  alone, 
or  almost  alone,  or  first,  is  a  considerable  one.  His 
grammar,  too,  has  character,  the  extension  of  con- 
structions by  analogy  being  very  common  in  him,  and 
he  carries  the  omission  of  verbs  to  extreme  lengths. 

Claudian  and  Sidonius  imitate  the  Thehais,  the 
grammarians  from  Servius  onward  quote  from  both 
epics.  Statius  held  an  influential  position  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  witness  the  part  he  plays  in  the  closing 
cantos  of  the  Purgatorio.  Joseph  of  Exeter  used  the 
Achilleis  in  his  Trojan  War  ;  Rabelais  refers  to  it. 
As  for  the  Thehais  Chaucer  knows  Thiodamas  and  a 
gest  that  told  how  'bisshop  Amphiorax  fil  thurghe 
the  ground  to  helle,'  ^  Tasso  has  many  reminiscences, 
one  of  the  vine-and-elm  simile  which  concludes 

par  che  sen  dolga,  e  piu  che'l  proprio  fato 
di  lei  gl'  incresca  che  gli  more  a  lato,- 

and  so  have  early  dramatists.  Gamier,  for  instance, 

whose   Antigone   is   a   medley   of   Seneca,    Sophocles 

and  Statius.     Racine  himself  borrows  in  his  Thebalde, 

and  it  is  hard  to  believe  that  Milton's 

So  much  the  rather  thou,  celestial  light, 
Shine  inward  and  the  mind  thro'  all  her  power 
Irradiate  :  there  plant  eyes  ^ 

owes  nothing  to  the  words  of  Tiresias,  '  God  whelmed 
mine  eyes  in  gloom,  and  gathered  all  the  light  to  my 

1  Troilus  and  Criseyde,  ii.  103  sqq.  '  Ger.  Lib.  20.  99. 

'  Paradise  Lost,  3.  51  sqq.,  Theb.  4.  542  sqq. 


THE  EPIC  53 

mind.'  There  are  other  passages  in  Paradise  Lost 
that  look  hke  reminiscences.  Pope  translated  the 
first  book  of  the  Thebais  when  only  fifteen,  Gray 
sends  West  a  spirited  version  of  the  quoit  episode 
of  Book  Six.  One  would  hke  to  know  how  Chateau- 
briand in  his  Martyrs  came  by  a  Hon  simile  directly 
translated  from  Statins.^ 

With  Sihus  I  can  be  brief  :  his  muse  was,  as  PHny 
recognized,  industrious  rather  than  inspired. ^  He  is 
not  even  forcible  :  if  he  writes  a  simpler  Latin  than 
do  the  others,  it  is  because  shallow  and  level  streams 
may  well  be  clear.  When  not  following  a  good  model 
he  is  contemptibly  feeble,  so  that  a  question  as  to  the 
genuineness  of  a  poor  passage  some  eighty  lines  in 
length,  found  in  no  MS.  and  first  included  in  the  text 
by  the  Aldine  of  1523, ^  cannot  be  decided  by  the 
cursory  glance  that  would  discover  the  handiwork 
of  Lucan,  Valerius,  or  Statins.  The  work  is  not,  how- 
ever, entirely  without  interest.  Literary  characters, 
or  their  forbears,  often  appear  as  combatants  in  the 
battles.  Ennius,  of  course,  is  there  in  his  own  right, 
but  we  meet  also  the  father  of  the  orator  Laelius, 
and  ancestors  of  Cicero  and  Asconius.*  The  number 
of  episodes  to  which  tolerably  close  parallels  cannot 
be  found  in  previous  epics  is  small,  but  among  these 
is  one  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  taste  for  animal 
stories  to  which  I  have  referred  before.  A  Roman's 
horse,  recognizing  its  master  among  the  wounded, 
throws  the  Carthaginian  who  is  riding  it  as  captive, 
and  approaching  the  fallen  man  kneels  down,  as  he 

*  Theb.  2.  675  sqq. 

*  Ep.  3.  7.  5  scribebat  carmina  maiore  cura  quam  ingenio. 

s  Pun.  8.  144  sqq.  :  see  the  article  by  W.  E.  Heitland,  Journal  of 
Philology,  1896. 

*  Pun.  12.  393  sqq.  (Ennius),  15.  453  sqq.  (Laelius),  8.  404  sqq. 
(Tullius),  12.  212  sqq.  (Pedianus). 


54     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

has  been  trained  to  do,  to  be  mounted  by  him.^  A 
characteristic  piece  of  pedantry  is  the  scene  in  which 
Virtue  and  Pleasure  reproduce  the  famous  '  Choice 
of  Hercules  '  for  the  benefit  of  the  youthful  Scipio.^ 
There  are  many  reminiscences  of  Livy,  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  third  decade,  which  was  presumably 
the  poet's  main  source  ;  Cicero,  too,  yields  tribute  in 
this  way. 

What  our  poet's  contemporaries  said  of  him  we  have 
already  seen  :  the  Silius  whom  Sidonius  names  is 
probably  the  same.^  One  or  two  MSS.  seem  to  have 
been  extant  in  the  ninth  century,  but  Hterature  knows 
his  work  again  only  after  1416  when  Poggio  or  his  friend 
Bartholomaeus  unearthed  a  copy  at  St.  Gall.  Elyot 
in  his  Governour,  Castiglioni  in  his  Cortegiano,  mention 
Silius  without  reveahng  the  extent  of  their  famiUarity 
with  his  work ;  Montaigne  occasionally  quotes  him ; 
Dryden  holds  him  worse  writer,  but  more  of  a  poet 
than  Lucan  ;  *  Addison  (whose  poetry,  pace  Macaulay, 
is  very  Silian)  often  cites  and  translates  him  in  his 
Remarks  on  Italy,  and  one  of  these  versions  contains 
a  Hne  that  may  well  be  the  original  of  Pope's  '  pale 
ghosts  '  that  '  start  at  the  flash  of  day.'  ^  Gray  read 
him  in  Piedmont,  Coleridge  never  (he  is  ashamed  to 
say  ^)  :  Macaulay  revenged  a  labour  that  was  not  of 
love  by  scribbUng  '  Heaven  be  praised  !  '  at  the  end  of 
his  copy  and  penning  a  criticism  in  the  essay  upon 
Addison.' 

^  Pun.  10.  454  sqq.  2  p^^    j^_  18-128. 

*  Carm.  9.  260.  «  Pref.  to  Annus  Mirahilis. 

*  Rape  of  the  Lock,  5.  52,  Sil.  12.  129  interdimique  nouo  perturbat 
lumine  manes.  «  Table-talk,  Sept.  2,  1833. 

^  Two  other  writers  of  Epic,  Serranus  and  Saleius  Bassus  are 
mentioned  by  Quintilian  (10.  i.  89,  90)  and  Juvenal  (7.  80)  ; 
both  died  early  after  doing  work  that  Quintilian  reckons  first  rate, 
and  Saleius  was  a  friend  of  Julius  Secundus  of  p.  131. 


CHAPTER  III 
DRAMA 

DRAMA  never  flourished  at  Rome,  and  the 
only  forms  of  it  now  popular  were  the  de- 
based ones  of  Mime  and  Atellane  play.  The 
latter  was  a  farce  of  some  kind  which  began  to  receive 
literary  treatment  in  Sullan  times,  and  we  hear  a 
good  deal  of  it  in  our  period,  chiefly  because  of  the 
habit  audiences  had  of  finding  in  the  dialogue  allu- 
sions of  an  uncomplimentary  character  to  the  emperor, ^ 
Caligula,  indeed,  burned  in  the  arena  an  author  who 
had  made  a  joke  that  could  be  construed  in  a 
treasonable  sense. ^  As  for  the  Mime,  Augustus  was 
true  to  the  spirit  of  his  time  when  he  turned  on  his 
deathbed  and  asked  his  friends  if  he  had  played 
well  the  mime  (not  the  comedy)  of  life  :  ^  to  the  empire 
these  sketches  from  everyday  life,  with  their 
immorality  seasoned  by  an  abundance  of  wise  and 
moral  sayings,*  stood  for  comedy.  The  fragments 
of  both  classes  of  work  are  too  meagre  to  detain 
us  here.  In  legitimate  Comedy,  only  dilettante  work 
was  done  :  the  plays  of  Virgilius  Romanus,  for  instance, 
much  admired  by  the  younger  PUny,  must  have  been 
like  the  Latin  comedies  written  at  one  time  by  junior 
fellows  at  Cambridge  for  presentation  on  the  occasion 
of  some  great  personage's  visit. ^  Nor  was  Tragedy 
much  better  off.  One  would,  indeed,  be  tempted 
to  suppose  that  it  too  was  entirely  bookish,  but  for 
the  attacks  made  in  a.d.  47  by  the  theatre  mob  upon 

*  Suet.  Tib.  45,  Ner.  39,  Galb.  13.  ^  Suet.  Cal.  -zj. 

'  Suet.  Aug.  99.      *   For  tliis  ingredient  see  Sen.  Ep.  8.  8  and  9. 

^  Plin.  Ep.  6.  21.  2  sqq. 

66 


56     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

the  tragic  poet  Publius  Pomponius  Secundus,  which 
muBt  presumably  have  been  connected  with  the 
pubHc  performance  of  one  of  his  plays. ^  This  man, 
having  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  the  eldest  son  of 
Sejanus,  had  been  kept  under  observation  during  the 
latter  part  of  Tiberius'  reign, ^  but  Cahgula's  accession 
revived  his  fortunes,^  and  he  not  only  held  a  consul- 
ship,^ but  in  A.D.  50  distinguished  himself  as  general 
against  the  Germans,  though  his  fame  as  a  poet,  remarks 
Tacitus,  was  far  greater.^  Quintihan  reckons  him 
the  best  writer  of  tragedy  he  has  seen,  though  older 
critics  thought  he  lacked  vigour.^  The  prefaces 
in  which  he  discussed  with  Seneca  matters  affecting 
the  diction  of  tragedy  ^  were  perhaps  like  those  which 
Dryden  prefixes  to  his  plays.  It  appears  that  he 
wrote  an  Aeneas,^  one  of  those  national  dramas  founded 
on  some  incident  of  Roman  legend  or  history,  and 
comparable  somewhat  to  Henry  the  Fifth  and  King 
John,  to  which  the  Romans  gave  the  name  praetexta. 
It  must  have  been  rather  difficult  in  plays  of  this 
kind  to  avoid  writing  something  at  which  a  suspicious 
emperor  might  take  umbrage  :  even  in  an  Atreus 
the  introduction  of  the  Euripidean  tag  One  must 
bear  with  one's  ruler's  folly  had  helped  to  ruin  Mamercus 
Scaurus  under  Tiberius.^  Yet  they  seem  rather 
common  in  our  period;  under  Vespasian  an  accom- 
phshed  barrister  named  Curiatius  Maternus  produced 

^  Tac.  Ann.  11.  13.  *  L.c.  5.  8.  ^  Dio  59.  6.  2. 

*  Plin.  A'^fl^  Hist.  7.  80  and  Tac.  11.  13  both  call  him  consularis. 

^  Tac.  Ann.  12.  27,  28.  He  was  a  friend  of  the  elder  Phny,  who 
wrote  his  biography  (see  p.  161). 

*  Quint.  10.  I.  98.  eorum  quos  uiderim  longe  princeps  .  .  .,  quern 
senes  quidem  parum  tragicum  putabant,  eruditione  ac  nitore  praestare 
confitebantur. 

''  Quint.  8.  3.  31  mentions  a  discussion  as  to  the  admissibility  of 
the  phrase  gradus  eliminat,  which  was  conducted  in  this  way. 

*  Charisius  in  Gramm.  Lat.  i.  p.  132.  ^  See  p.  129. 


DRAMA  57 

a  Cato  and  a  Domitius,  based  upon  incidents  of  the 
civil  wars  of  Caesar  and  Augustus  respectively. 
Expressions  put  in  the  mouth  of  this  writer  in  the 
Dialogus  of  p.  261  make  it  probable  that  these  and 
other  plays  of  his  were  written  for  reading  rather  than 
performance. 1 

A  few  Unes  of  Pomponius  have  survived,  nothing 
from  Curiatius.  But  the  collection  preserved  to  us 
under  Seneca's  name  ^  provides  us  with  complete 
specimens  of  Roman  tragedy — the  only  ones  we 
possess.  Eight  of  the  pieces  are  pretty  certainly  the 
work  of  the  philosopher  :  the  pohshed,  epigrammatic 
Latin  closely  resembles  his,  the  choruses  are  mostly 
verse  diatribes  on  his  favourite  topics  of  ambition, 
simpHcity  and  so  forth,  the  dialogue  often  reproduces 
striking  passages  from  his  prose.  The  divergencies 
between  them,  or  groups  of  them,  in  matters  of 
language  and  metre  are  similar  to  those  which  exist 
between  different  dramas  of  Euripides  or  Shakespeare. 
The  '  Frenzied  Hercules,'  '  Medea,'  '  Oedipus  '  (the 
King),  and  '  Agamemnon  '  are  loosely  based  on  extant 
Greek  tragedies  bearing  the  same  title ;  the  '  Trojan 
Women  '  is  an  amalgam  of  the  Troades  and  Hecuba 
of  Euripides,  the  Phoenissae  of  Euripides  and  Seven 
against  Thebes  of  Aeschylus  are  combined  in  the 
'  Phoenician  Women,'  which  is  however  not  a  complete 
play,  but  merely  two  disconnected  scenes.  The 
models  of  the  '  Phaedra  '  ^  and  '  Thyestes  '  are  not 

^  Dial.  ^  si  qua  omisi{  Caio,  sequenti  lecitaktione  Thyestes  dicet  .  .  . 
maturare  libri  huius  editionem  festino. 

*  Quintilian  too  (9.  2.  8)  cites,  as  put  in  the  mouth  of  Medea  by 
Seneca,  a  half  hue  which  occurs  in  a  speech  made  by  him  in  the 
Medea  of  our  collection. 

^  Only  one  of  the  two  plays  in  which  Euripides  wrote  upon  this 
subject  has  reached  us.  From  this  the  Senecan  piece  diverges  so 
far    (representing,    for  instance,   the  overtures   to   Hippolytus   as 


< 


58     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

preserved.  A  '  Hercules  on  Oeta,'  covering  much 
the  same  ground  as  the  Trachiniae  of  Sophocles, 
comes  next  in  the  collection,  standing  out  from  its 
predecessors  by  reason  of  its  length,  which  exceeds 
the  longest  of  them  by  650  lines,  and  the  unevenness 
of  its  style,  passages  of  Senecan  brilUance  and  eloquence 
lying  embedded  amidst  shpshod  Latin  and  feeble 
bathos.  That  something  is  wrong  with  the  second 
half  is  generally  recognized,  but  several  critics  believe 
that  the  first  may  come  from  the  author  of  the  other 
plays.  As,  however,  it  contains  much  rubbish,  whilst 
the  later  portion  is  not  wholly  devoid  of  good  stuff, 
I  prefer  to  look  upon  the  whole  thing  as  an  expansion 
by  a  very  late  author  of  some  rough  work  of  Seneca's 
which  had  somehow  survived  to  his  day.i 

As  hterature  the  plays  are  contemptible,  substituting 
for  action  and  emotion  declamation  and  hysteria, 
for  characterisation,  psychological  analysis,  and  full  of 
morbid  craving  for  the  horrible  and  disgusting.  Very 
characteristic  in  their  disregard  for  probability  are  the 
duologues,  in  which  each  speaker,  no  matter  what  his 
standing,  contributes  a  line  or  so,  sometimes  only  a 
word,  of  epigram : 

Nurse.  Stay  thy  passion  mad. 

My  daughter.     Scarce  shall  silence  keep  thee  safe. 

Medea.  Fortune  doth  fear  the  brave  and  whelm  the  coward. 

Nurse.  Praise  is  to  courage  due,  when  it  hath  scope. 

Medea.  Never  can  courage  be  at  loss  for  scope. 

Nurse.  No  hope,  when  all  is  lost,  can  point  a  way. 

Medea.  He  that  can  nothing  hope,  need  nought  despair. 

Nurse.  Colchis  is  far  away,  thy  consort  false  : 
Of  all  thy  rich  resources,  none  abides. 

made,  not  by  the  nurse,  but  by  the  queen  herself)  that  it  is  generally 
assumed  that  it  is  based  on  the  other. 

1  See  my  article,  The  Authorship  of  the  Hercules  Oetaeus,  Class. 
Rev.  1905. 


DRAMA  59 

Medea.  Abides  Medea  :   there  you  've  all  the  world, 

And  sword  and  fire,  heaven  and  heaven's  hghtnings 
too. 
Nurse.  One  must  a  monarch  fear. 
Medea.  My  sire  was  one  ! 

Nurse.  Fear'st  not  their  hosts  ? 

Medea.  Not  though  from  earth  they  spring  !  ^ 

Nurse.  'Tis  death  ! 
Medea.  And  welcome  ! 

Nurse.  Flee ! 

Medea,  Nay,  not  again  !  ^ 

As  an  instance  of  bad  taste  I  take  the  fall  of  the 
curtain  upon  Theseus,  piecing  together  the  remnants 
of  the  mangled  body  of  his  son  : 

Ah,  what  is  this 
Shapeless  and  hideous,  gashed  about  with  wounds  ? 
Some  part  of  thee  it  is,  I  know  not  what. 
Here,  here  then  let  it  go,  not  where  it  should, 
But  where  there  's  room  ;  ^ 

of  ranting,  the  outbursts  of  Hercules  when  he  realizes 
that  he  has  murdered  his  family,  and  Hippolytus 
when  he  finds  his  stepmother  in  love  with  him  ^ — 
things  to  which,  it  must  be  owned,  the  plays  owed 
much  of  their  popularity  with  Elizabethan  playwrights. 
It  cannot,  indeed,  be  denied  that  they  contain  some 
fine  lines  and  thoughts,  which  great  writers  have  not 
disdained  to  quote  and  develop,  even  some  eloquent 
or  pathetic  passages.  Really  dramatic  scenes  are 
rare,    but    one   in    the    Troadcs,    much    admired   by 

^  A  characteristic  allusion  to  the  earth-born  warriors  from  whom 
she  saved  him  at  Colchis.  So  below  '  again  '  involves  a  reference 
to  her  original  elopement  with  Jason. 

2  Med.  157-170.  *  Phaedr.  1265  sqq. 

*  Here.  Fur.  1202  nunc  parte  ah  omni,  genitor,  iratus  tona  |  •  •  • 
stelliger  mundus  sonet,\ flam-masque  et  hie  et  tile  iaculetur  polus,  etc., 
Phaedr.  671  magna  regnator  deum,\tam  lentus  audis  scelera  .^  tarn, 
lentus  uides  ?  \  .  .  .  omnis  impulstts  ruat  \  aether  et  atris  nubibus 
condat  diem  !  The  first  half  of  the  second  passage  is  quoted,  in  the 
original  Latin,  in  Titus  Andronicus,  iv.  i. 


6o     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

the  modern  imitators, ^  is  worth  reproducing  here. 
Ulysses  has  come  to  fetch  Hector's  son  for  execution ; 
his  mother,  who  has  concealed  the  boy  in  his  father's 
sepulchre,  swears,  with  dramatic  irony  : 

He  's  from  the  daylight  gone,  laid  in  the  tomb, 
Is  with  the  dead,  and  all  their  dues  hath  had.^ 

Ulysses  hurries  away  in  dehght,  but  suddenly  checks 
himself : 

But,  soft !   the  Greeks  will  take  thy  word,  Ulysses  : 

Whose  word  hast  thou  ?     A  parent's  :   lie  like  that 

No  parent  frames,  omen  so  hideous  scouting — 

But  they  fear  omens  who  've  no  worse  to  fear. 

Yes,  but  she  swore  an  oath — And  if  'tis  false. 

What  need  she  fear  that 's  worse  than  she  bears  now  ?  .  ,  . 

{watching  the  queen  closely) 

She  's  sad,  and  weeps,  and  moans. 
Yes,  but  still  paces  anxious  to  and  fro 
Catcloing,  with  ear  alert,  at  all  I  say. 
'Tis  fear,  not  grief,  she  feels.     I  need  my  wits. 

{turning  to  hey) 
Most  parents  in  such  case  should  one  console 
But  thou  art  happy  to  have  lost  thy  son, 
Whose  doom  it  was  a  bloody  death  to  die 
Flung  from  the  last  tower  left  of  Troy's  fallen  walls. ^ 

Andromache  cannot  repress  a  start,  a  word  or  two 
of  horror.     Ulysses  again  soliloquizes  : 

Trembling  !    I  'm  on  the  track  :   her  terror  proves 

She  's  still  a  mother.     I  must  try  again. 
{addressing  his  attendants) 

Come,  scatter,  men.     Somewhere  the  mother's  guile 

Hath  hid  our  foe,  last  peril  of  our  race  : 

Quick  :   find  his  lurking-place  and  rout  him  out ! 
{pretending  to  see  the  boy  captured) 

Ha,  good  !    They  have  him.     Quick,  now,  bring  him  here  ! 
{turning  to  Andromache,  who  has  involuntarily  stolen  a  glance 
towards  the  tomb) 

^  Tro.  524  sqq.  *  L.c.  599-604.  »  L.c.  607  sqq. 


DRAMA  6i 

Why  turn  and  tremble  ?   he  is  surely  dead  ? 
Andr.  Would  I  did  fear  indeed  !    'Tis  an  old  habit 
And  long-conned  lessons  are  not  soon  forgot.'^ 

Ulysses  now  explains  that  it  will  be  necessary  to 
demolish  the  tomb  and  scatter  the  ashes  of  Hector. 
Andromache  steels  her  heart  to  bear  the  indignity 
to  her  beloved  dead,  but  as  the  work  begins  breaks 
into  self-reproach  : 

What  art  thou  doing  ?    Wilt  in  ruin  whelm 

Father  and  son  ?   May  be  the  Greeks  will  hear  thee — 

A  moment,  and  the  massive  tomb  must  crush 

Him  it  now  hides.     O  better  anywhere 

He  died  than  there,  for  sire  on  son  to  fall 

Or  son  on  sire  !  - 

And  she  makes  a  last  appeal  to  Ulysses,  answered 
with  a  brief,  '  Render  him  up :  then  entreat !  '  In 
mournful  anapaests  she  calls  Astyanax  forth — to  be 
hurried  off  to  death  by  his  enemy,  deaf  alike  to  prayer 
and  argument.^ 

In  many  MSS.,  though  not  those  of  the  better 
family,  the  second  Hercules  is  followed  by  a  tenth 
tragedy  which  deals  with  the  story  of  Nero's  unhappy 
wife  Octavia,  and  bears  her  name.  The  Latinity  of 
the  play  is  good,  its  style  much  more  restrained  than 
that  of  the  others.  Internal  evidence  shows  that  it 
was  written  after  Nero's  death,'*  but  it  may  well 
belong  to  our  period.  It  is  the  only  praetexta  that  has 
reached  us — a  fact  which  hardly  makes  amends  for 
the  poverty  of  its  literary  merit.  The  action  starts 
with  events  immediately  preceding  the  divorce,  and 
ends   with   the   rising   of   the   populace  in   Octavia's 

'  L.c.  625  sqq.  *  L.c.  686-691.  ^  L.c.  691  sqq. 

*  The  lines  in  which  Agrippina  predicts  the  fall  and  death  of  Nero 
(629-631)  fit  the  actual  course  of  events  too  well  not  to  be  post 
factum. 


62      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

favour,  and  Nero's  order  for  her  execution.  The 
dramatis  personae  include,  besides  the  two  protagonists, 
Poppaea,  the  ghost  of  Agrippina,  and  Seneca  himself. 
One  of  the  choruses  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the 
famous  attempt  to  drown  Agrippina. ^ 

Seneca  can  hardly  have  intended  his  plays  for  the 
stage  :  his  Medea  has  no  qualms  as  to  killing  her 
children  in  full  view  of  the  audience. ^  It  is  just 
possible  that  they  are  '  plays  with  a  purpose,'  differing 
but  in  form  from  the  author's  essays  on  Anger  and 
Clemency.  The  whole  collection  exercised  a  tremendous 
influence  on  the  first  beginnings  of  modern  drama. ^ 
In  Italy,  Mussato,  Loschi,  and  Corraro  wrote  Latin 
plays  modelled  upon  it  and  borrowing  from  it,  and 
the  first  ItaHan  tragedy,  Camelli's  Filostrato  e  Panfila, 
not  content  with  making  loans,  puts  its  prologue  in 
the  mouth  of  Seneca.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
Trissino  preferred  the  Greek  models,  but  Cinthio's 
Orbecche  returns  to  the  Senecan  ideal,  which  was 
by  now  strong  also  in  England  and  France.  Buchanan 
and  Muret  wrote  in  Latin,  but  in  1552  Jodelle's 
Cleopdtre  introduced  Seneca  to  the  vernacular.  Gar- 
nier  continues  the  innovation,  whilst  in  our  own 
country  Gorhoduc  owes  the  Latin  poet  its  plan,  Gismond 
of  Salerne  and  The  Misfortunes  of  Arthur  some  thoughts 
as  well.  Kyd's  Spanish  Tragedie  with  its  Seneca 
scraps  and  borrowings  leads  us  on  to  Titus  Andronicus 
and  early  Shakespeare.  Into  further  details  I  cannot 
go  here,  but  must  record  the  fact  that  the  Tantalus 
who  raves  against  the  house  of  Pelops  at  the  opening 
of  the  Thycstes  develops,  through  a  long  line  of  plays 

^  Ll.  310  sqq.  *  Med.  970,  looi. 

•  See  J.  W.  Cunliffe,  Early  English  Classical  Tragedies  (Oxford, 
1912). 


DRAMA  63 

beginning  with  Corraro's  Procne,  into  the  ghost  of 
Hamlet.  Corneille  and  Racine  use  the  plays,  even 
Alfieri  is  not  uninfluenced  by  them. 

The  earhest  quotation  is  a  half  hne  that  has  been 
scrawled  on  a  wall  at  Pompeii  :  ^  Quintihan  cites  an- 
other, 2  whilst  the  epic  writers  borrow  freely.  Sidonius 
regards  the  playwright  as  distinct  from  the  philoso- 
pher, speaking  of  two  sons  of  Corduban  followers 
respectively  of  Plato  and  Euripides.^  But  the  bishop 
of  Clermont  is  an  inaccurate  writer,  who  in  this  very 
passage  makes  Euripides  scan  as  two  trochees  :  he 
was  perhaps  misled  by  the  fact  that  in  the  hbraries 
of  his  day,  where  authors  were  classed  as  sacred  or 
profane,  the  obviously  heathen  dramas  were  separated 
from  the  moral  writings  with  which  one  naturally 
associated  the  name  of  the  friend  of  St.  Paul. 

1  Diehl,  Pomp.  Wandinschr.  809  {=Agam.  730). 

*  See  p.  57^  *  Carm.  9.  232-234. 


CHAPTER  IV 
VERSE  SATIRE 

THE  name  satura  was  applied  by  the  Romans 
to  more  than  one  kind  of  hterary  product. 
It  was  first  used  to  denote  the  earHest  form 
of  drama,  a  kind  of  dialogue  play  in  verse,  almost 
devoid  of  plot ;  i   then,  when  that  died  out,  owing  to 
the  rise  of  regular  comedy  based  on  Greek  models, 
Ennius  seems  to  have  given  it  to  a  new  kind  of  com- 
position, 2  of  which,  however,  we  know  httle  more  than 
that  it  was  intended  for  reading,  not  acting.     With 
Lucilius,    the   contemporary   of   the   younger   Scipio, 
we  get  a  writer  of  satura  as  to  whose  conception  of 
its  functions  it  is  possible   to  speak  more  precisely. 
His  fragments  make  up  a  volume  considerably  larger 
than  a  book  of  the  Aeneid  and,  brief,  disconnected,  and 
accidentally  preserved  as  the  items  are,  leave  us  with 
a  fairly  definite  impression  of  something  that,  save 
that   it   was   written   in   verse    (only   predominantly 
hexameter),    was   not   unHke   Montaigne's   Essais   or 
Addison's  Spectator.     The  topics  are  as  varied,  their 
treatment  as  desultory,  as  one  would  expect  to  find 
in  a  descendant  of  the  plotless  medley  of  early  Re- 
pubhcan    times :     nevertheless,     the    prevalence    of 
causeries  on  Hterary,  philosophical,  and  artistic  matters, 
sketches   from   everyday  life,    dehneation   of  human 

^  Liv.  7.  2.  4  sqq. 

2  Quintilian  (9.  2.  36)  and  Gellius  (2.  29.  20)  enable  us  to  get  some 
idea  of  the  contents. 
64 


,      VERSE  SATIRE  65 

weaknesses  in  general  and  the  experiences  of  the  poet 
in  particular  is  distinctly  marked.  The  invective, 
the  outspokenness  upon  political  matters  remind  us, 
as  they  reminded  Horace, ^  of  the  old  Aristophanic 
comedy,  but  this  is  certainly  not  the  model  of  Lucihus 
in  the  sense  that  Greek  epic  and  tragedy  were  the 
models  of  Virgil  and  Ennius.  Varro,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  next  satirist  whose  work  has*  reached  us 
(unfortunately  only  in  fragments),  has,  by  calhng  his 
pieces  Menippean  satires,  proclaimed  himself  an 
imitator.  The  writings  of  the  Cynic  Menippus  of 
Gadara  are  entirely  lost  to  us,  but  we  may  fairly 
assume  that  certain  distinctive  features  of  Varronian 
satire  which  reappear  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  in  the 
work  of  another  rival  of  the  Gadarene's,  Lucian 
of  Samosata,  were  due  to  their  influence.  I  have 
already  had  occasion  2  to  refer  to  the  hghtness  and 
grace  of  the  tone  of  the  Varro  fragments.  Philosophy 
is  a  prominent  feature  ;  indeed,  the  pictures  from  hfe 
and  gossip  on  hterature  and  art  are  perhaps  generally 
only  incidental.  There  are  two  striking  peculiarities 
of  form.  Both  prose  and  verse  are  employed,  some- 
times in  the  same  piece,  and  there  is  a  tendency  to 
give  a  piece  a  narrative  or  dramatic  setting.^  In 
Horace,  whose  work  in  this  direction,  composed 
exclusively  in  hexameters,  has  reached  us  complete, 
we  find  much  the  same  subjects  as  in  Lucihus,  save 
that  the  Augustan  naturally  avoids  pohtics.  The 
tone  is  one  of  gentlemanly,  good-natured  raillery, 
the  leading  virtues  are  dehcacy  of  touch  and  insight 
into  character.     As  Lucilius  suggests  Aristophanes,  so 

1  Sat.  I.  4.  6.  a  See  p.  i6. 

'  See  Mommsen's  interesting  (and  imaginative)  account  of  the 
fragments,  History  of  Rome,  v.  12. 


66     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Horace  Menander,  but  the  only  branch  of  Greek 
Hterature  to  which  he  is  really  indebted  is  the  diatribe, 
that  popular  discourse,  sermon,  on  moral  philosophy, 
which  originated  with  the  Stoics  and  Cynics,  and  of 
which  Teles  is  perhaps  the  best-known  exponent. 
The  diatribe  can,  however,  hardly  count  as  one  of 
Horace's  models,  whereas  its  influence  upon  the  first 
satirist  of  our  period,  Persius,  was  as  powerful  as  that 
of  Menippus  seems  to  have  been  upon  Varro. 

Of  Aulus  Persius  Flaccus  our  MSS.  preserve  an 
account  that  claims  to  come  from  the  commentary 
of  Valerius  Probus.^  Bom  in  a.d.  34,  at  Volaterrae, 
in  an  equestrian  family,  he  lost  his  father  at  the  age 
of  six,  was  brought  six  years  later  to  Rome,  and 
presently  learned  philosophy  from  the  Stoic  Cornutus. 
With  another  Stoic,  a  relation  of  his  by  marriage,  the 
Thrasea  Paetus  of  Tacitus'  Annals,  he  travelled, 
whilst  the  list  of  his  friends  includes  the  names  of 
Seneca,  Lucan,  Caesius  Bassus,  and  Servihus  Nonianus.^ 
To  an  attractive  exterior  he  joined  a  tranquil,  modest 
disposition,  and  showed  affectionate  devotion  to  the 
women  of  his  family.  The  perusal  of  Lucihus'  tenth 
book  set  him  writing  satires,  but  before  he  had  com- 
pleted the  sixth  he  was  struck  down  by  death,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-eight.  Cornutus  seems  to  have  taken 
charge  of  his  literary  remains,  but  to  have  handed 
over  to  Bassus  the  task  of  editing  what  was  deemed 
worthy  of  pubhcation.^ 

Even  in  the  first  satire,  where  it  might  be  thought 
that  Persius  is  simply  ridiculing  a  fashionable  craze, 
closer  inspection  teaches  us  that  he  is  really  proving 

^  For  whom  see  p.  254. 

*  For  the  two  last-named  see  pp.  96  and  157. 

•  Leuiter  correxit  {librum)  Cornutus  et  Caesio  Basso  petenti  ut  ipse 
ederet  tradidit  edendum,  says  the  Vita, 


VERSE  SATIRE  67 

that  bad  morals  mean  bad  literature — the  standpoint 
of  Seneca  in  the  114th  of  his  Moral  Letters  :  the 
other  satires  are  simply  and  frankly  Stoic  diatribes 
in  verse,  and  their  best  commentary  those  same 
letters  of  Seneca — which  indeed  they  somewhat 
closely  resemble,  not  merely  in  doctrine  and  methods 
of  illustration,  but  also  in  the  looseness  of  the  tie 
between  each  piece  and  its  addressee,  and  in  the 
shadowy  vagueness  of  the  imaginary  interlocutor. 
In  this  last  point,  legacy  from  the  diatribe,  where  a 
perfunctory  '  says  he  '  is  the  regular  phrase  for  in- 
troducing objections,  Persius  naturally  suffers  by 
comparison  with  a  master  of  dialogue  hke  Horace. 
The  subjects  of  these  five  satires  are  :  the  proper 
objects  of  prayer ;  the  need  for  philosophy  as  the 
guide  for  hfe,  the  medicine  of  moral  disease  ;  the 
folly  of  neglecting  self-knowledge  and  accepting  the 
valuation  of  the  crowd  ;  the  real  meaning  of  hberty  ; 
the  right  use  of  wealth.  A  fourteen-hne  poem,  written 
in  '  hmping  '  iambics,  on  the  theme  '  No  poet  inspired 
am  I  :  'tis  to  earn  my  bread  that  I  write  ' — not  very 
intelhgible  in  view  of  the  easy  circumstances  in  which 
the  author  seems  to  have  lived — precedes  in  some 
MSS.,  in  others  follows,  the  satires  proper,  written 
in  hexameters. 

Although  Persius  is  most  unambitious  in  the  matter 
of  vocabulary,  and  revels  in  the  use  of  colloquiahsms 
such  as  most  hterary  writers  deemed  beneath  the 
dignity  even  of  prose,i  his  obscurity  is  greater  than 
that  of  any  Latin  author  outside  the  period  of  absolute 
decay.     For   this   his   favourite   use   of  metaphor  is 

^  Typical  words  that  one  might  quote  are  baro,  bombi,  ebullire 
(in  a  slang  sense),  exossatus,  gluitu,  lallare,  mamma,  nonaria,  palpo 
(subst.),  sanna,  scloppo. 


68      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

largely  responsible.  That  he  often  gains  in  force 
and  loses  little  in  clearness  by  this  ornament  one  must 
freely  admit.  '  Listen  while  I  pull  your  grandmothers 
{i.e.  inveterate  prejudices)  out  of  your  heart '  ;  ^  'He's 
gone  under — not  so  much  as  a  bubble  to  show  '  (of 
one  lost  to  shame)  ;  ^  '  His  ears  have  been  well  soused 
in  pungent  vinegar  '  ^  (so  that  he  is  proof  against 
bad  logic) — turns  like  these  remind  us  of  the  best  things 
in  Carlyle  and  Meredith.  But  too  often,  as  with  those 
writers  at  times,  the  picture  is  blurred,  the  very 
point  obscure.  So  the  phrase  '  kettle  of  speech,'  * 
applied  by  him  to  the  style  of  the  day,  is  by  one 
editor  interpreted  '  hotch-potch,'  by  another  as  a 
reference  to  frothy  bubbhngs.  In  other  cases  the 
general  sense  is  clear  enough,  but  we  need  the  help  of 
a  commentator  before  we  can  grasp  the  particular 
allusion.  When  the  thought  '  Learning  is  no  use 
if  no  one  knows  it  to  exist '  takes  the  form  '  What 
avails  study,  unless  this  leaven,  this  wild  fig-tree 
that  has  struck  root  in  the  heart,  breaks  its  way 
through  ?  '  ^  and  the  editors  remind  us  that  the 
fig-tree  has  a  remarkable  capacity  of  forcing  its  way 
through  the  strongest  obstacles,  we  begin  to  think  of 
Browning,  whose  manner  indeed  is  almost  anticipated 
by  such  a  line  as 

'Gainst  wrong  a  theta  black  you  've  skill  to  prick,* 

where  the  meaning  is  '  You  know  how  to  prove  an 
act  immoral '  and  we  must  remember  that  a  juror 

^  5.  92  dum  ueteres  aulas  iibi  de  pulmone  reuello. 

*  3.  34  alto  \  denier sus  summa  rursus  non  bullit  in  unda. 
^  5.  86  aureni  mordaci  lotus  aceto. 

*  I.  80  sartago  loquendi. 

*  I.  24  nisi  hoc  fermentum  et  quae  semel  intus\innata  est  rupto 
iecore  exierit  caprificus  ? 

^  4.  13  potis  es  nigrum  uitio  praefigere  theta. 


VERSE  SATIRE  69 

who  wished  to  convict  on  a  capital  charge  wrote  on 
his  voting  tablet  the  initial  th  of  the  Greek  word 
for  death  !  Another  thing  that  makes  Persius  hard  to 
read  is  his  clumsiness  in  the  management  of  dialogue, 
in  consequence  of  which  we  are  often  in  doubt  as  to 
where  one  speaker  leaves  off  and  another  begins. 
A  typical  instance  is  to  be  found  in  a  passage  of  the 
first  satire,  where  a  few  specimens  of  fashionable 
verse  are  followed  by  certain  comments,  and  editors 
are  by  no  means  agreed  on  the  question  whether  these 
represent  the  derision  of  Persius  or  the  appreciation 
of  his  interlocutor.  1 

Another  weakness  of  our  author's,  and  one 
particularly  unfortunate  for  a  satirist,  is  bookishness. 
Any  reader  of  insight  could  evolve  from  these  writings 
just  the  picture  the  biography  draws  of  their  author, 
a  shy  and  earnest  student,  brought  up  with  women 
relatives  and  philosophers,  to  whom  Ufe  is  represented 
by  the  lecture  room  and  the  hbrary.  His  constant 
echoing  of  the  thoughts  and  phrases  of  Horace,  his 
borrowing  from  his  satires  of  such  typical  characters 
as  Pedius  the  barrister,  Craterus  the  doctor,  Natta 
the  reprobate,  2  may  be  due  to  a  convention  similar 
to  that  which  we  have  seen  actuating  the  imitators 
of  Virgil.  It  is  quite  possible  he  paid  similar  homage 
to  LuciUus  :  the  fragments  of  that  writer  present 
a  considerable  number  of  parallel  passages.  But 
there  can  be  httle  doubt  that  Persius  did  lack  inventive 
power.  Brief  as  his  work  is,  he  manages  to  repeat 
himself  a  good  deal,  never  wearying,  for  instance,  of 
metaphors  drawn  from  the  carpenter's  or  house-builder's 

^   I.  92  sqq. 

*  Nerius  (2.  i4  =  Hor.  2.  3.  69),  Craterus  (3.  65  =  Hor.  2.  3.  161), 
Natta  (3.  3i='Hor.  i.  6.  124). 


70     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

art,i  and  twice  venting  his  resentment  against  the 
Philistine  centurions.  ^  When  he  is  not  simply  versify- 
ing lecture  notes  or  reproducing  models,  and  it  is  a 
question  of  describing  what  he  has  actually  seen,  Persius 
is  by  no  means  without  genius.  Petronius  himself  could 
hardly  have  bettered  his  picture  of  the  literary  salon  : 

See,  Rome's  young  bloods  have  dined,  and  o'er  their  wine 

Ask  what  the  news  from  Poesy  divine, 

And  straight  doth  one  in  purple  all  bedight 

Snuffling  and  lisping  some  poor  trash  recite. 

Filtering  and  mincing  in  his  foppish  way 

Phyllis,  Hypsipyle — some  dolorous  lay. 

Thunders  applause.     Is  not  the  poet  dead 

Happy  that  hour  ?    No  lighter  on  his  head 

Weighs  now  the  marble  ?     All  about  his  tomb 

From  the  blest  ashes  will  not  violets  bloom  ? 

'  'Tis  only  fun,  of  course,'  he  says,  '  you  poke,  /l 

Carrying  too  far  your  penchant  for  a  joke. 

Is  there  a  poet  would  deny  he  pines 

To  win  the  lips  of  men  and  leave  some  lines 

Worthy  in  cedar-oil  embalmed  to  be — 

From  fear  of  fish  or  spices  ever  free  ?  '  ^ 

My  feigned  interlocutor,  I  admit 
That  when  on  something  superfine  I  hit 
(A  Phoenix  rare,  I  grant,  but  when  I  do) 
I  don't  shun  praise.     I  'm  flesh  and  blood  hke  you. 
My  point  is  this.     Your  '  fine  !  '  and  your  '  bravo  !  ' 
Are  not  the  farthest  excellence  can  go.  .   .  . 
You  keep  a  table  where  choice  dainties  smoke. 
Can  fling  a  shivering  friend  a  cast-off  cloak,  ^ 

And  then  '  Plain  Truth 's  the  apple  of  my  eye :  _M 

Tell  me  the  truth  about  myself  !  '    you  cry.  !■ 

How  can  the  thing  be  done  ?     But  still,  I  '11  try.  " 

Bald-pate,  whose  paunch  a  good  half  yard  before 
Stands  out,  'tis  trash  you  write,  and  nothing  more  !  *  ^ 


1  See  3.  52,  4.  12,  5.  25  and  38. 

*  3-  77  {gente  hircosa  centurionum) ,  5.  189. 

'  A  characteristic  echo  of  Horace,  who  in  Ars  Poet.  332  mentions 
the  use  of  cedar  resin  to  preserve  books  from  decay,  and  in  Ep. 
2.  I.  269  alludes  to  the  passing  of  unreadable  books  to  that  quarter 
of  the  city  '  where  they  sell  incense,  perfumes,  pepper — everything 
for  which  dull  literature  can  serve  as  wrapper.' 


*  I-  30-57- 


VERSE  SATIRE  71 

There  is  much  vigour,  too,  in  the  picture  of  the  patient 
who  lacks  strength  of  mind  to  carry  out  the  doctor's 
advice  to  '  go  slow  ' — 

Suppose  his  pulse  by  the  third  evening  mend  : 

To  some  great  mansion  he  'II  a  flagon  send 

(One  with  a  decent  swallow)  and  a  line 

To  say,  before  his  bath  he  'd  like  some  wine. 

'  My  friend,  you  're  pale,'  '  'Tis  nothing.'     '  Still,  take  care  : 

Your  skin,  you  know — perhaps  you  're  not  aware 

How  pufied  it  is,  and  yellow  ?  '     '  Yellow  !    why, 

Your  own  is  ten  times  worse  :   you  needn't  try 

To  come  the  guardian  o'er  me.     Many  a  year 

Has  he  been  dead — but  you,  you  still  are  here.' 

'  Oh,  very  well :    I  've  nothing  more  to  say.' 

So  to  the  bath  our  patient  wends  his  way.  .  .  . 

But  shivers  seize  him,  drinking  as  he  stands, 

And  dash  the  steaming  tankard  from  his  hands.  .  .  . 

Tapers  and  funeral  march  must  be  the  end  : 

On  lofty  bed  they  lay  our  poor  dear  friend. 

Where  with  coarse  ointments  daubed  and  plastered  o'er 

Stark  heels  and  stiff  he  turns  towards  the  door — 

Till  his  knaves  come  to  carry  him  away, 

Wearing  the  freedman's  cap,  Romans  since  yesterday.^ 

An  exceptionally  simple  piece  of  writing,  which  never- 
theless is  full  of  force,  is  the  passage  in  which  Persius 
protests  against  the  wickedness  of  many  a  prayer 
that  is  only  whispered — 

Come,  say  now — 'tis  not  much  I  would  be  told, — • 

What  views  about  Jove's  character  you  hold. 

D'  ye  think  he  's  better  than — well.  Stains,  say  ? 

Ah,  you  're  not  sure,  and  hesitate.     But,  pray, 

Could  you  name  better  judge  the  bench  to  sit. 

For  guardianship  of  orphan  one  more  fit  ? 

WeU,  now,  this  prayer  with  which  you  boldly  ply 

The  ears  of  Jupiter  on  Staius  try. 

'  Oh,  Jove  !    O  gracious  Jove  !  '    he  '11  soon  exclaim. 

And  Jove  himself^ — won't  he  invoke  his  name  ? 

If,  when  it  thunders,  'tis  an  oak  that 's  riven 

Not  you  and  yours,  deem  you  that  all 's  forgiven  ?  2 

*  3.  90-106.  *  2.  17-25. 


72     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

There  is  surely  eloquence  in  these  lines  : 

Father  of  Heaven  Almighty,  in  such  wise 

Be  pleased  the  bloody  tyrants  to  chastise  : 

Let  them  by  passions  venomed  fever  tossed 

See  Virtue  and  turn  sick  to  know  her  lost. 

The  roaring  bull  of  Sicily,  the  sword 

That  hung  from  gilded  vault  o'er  royal  board, 

What  terrors  hold  they,  that  dread  thought  beside 

Down,  ever  down,  in  headlong  fall  I  glide  ! 

Or  ghastly  symptoms  that  but  inly  show. 

Whereof  the  dearest  wife  must  never  know  ?  ^ 

But  perhaps  the  most  attractive  passage  is  that  in 
which  the  poet  tells  the  story  of  his  relations  with 
Comutus  :  it  happens  also  to  serve  to  illustrate  the 
boldness  of  his  metaphors — 

We  are  alone,  Cornutus  :   in  thy  hands 
I  put  my  heart  (for  so  the  Muse  commands) 
For  scrutiny.     Tis  pleasant  to  declare 
How  great  in  mine  own  soul,  dear  friend,  thy  share. 
Sound  it :   the  ring  will  solid  brick  disclose, 
Not  varnished  lath  and  plaster  of  mere  pose. 
Well  may  I  then  a  hundred  tongues  request 
To  tell  how  deep  ensconced  within  my  breast 
Thou  liest,  and  thoughts  unutterable  reveal 
That  my  heart's  inmost  depths  as  yet  conceal. 
When,  timid  boyhood  gone,  mine  amulet 
Was  to  the  fold-girt  housegods  dedicate, ^ 
When  fawning  slaves  and  manhood's  snowy  gown 
Gave  mine  eyes  leave  to  rove  o'er  all  the  town. 
When  doubtful  grows  the  way,  and  ignorance  blind 
With  branching  roads  confronts  the  faltering  mind, 
Then  I,  Cornutus,  you  my  guardian  make, 
To  your  Socratic  breast  my  youth  you  take. 
Your  inobtrusive  gauge  at  once  detects 
Each  warp  in  morals  and  the  same  corrects, 

^  3-  35-43- 

*  The  bxilla,  a  ball  worn  by  freeborn  boys  as  a  protection  against 
the  evil  eye,  seems  to  have  been  hung  up  by  them,  on  the  assumption 
of  the  garb  of  manhood,  near  the  shrine  of  the  Lares.  These  gods 
were  represented  as  wearing  the  toga  in  what  was  called  the  Gabian 
mode,  the  special  point  of  which  consisted  in  the  drawing  of  a 
fold  round  the  body  to  serve  as  a  girdle. 


VERSE  SATIRE  73 

My  mind  defeat  at  reason's  hands  desires, 
And  plastic  features  'neath  thy  touch  acquires. 
With  you  I  watch  the  long  day  fade  in  gloom 
Or  for  the  banquet  pluck  night's  early  bloom. 
On  toil  and  rest  the  self  same  hours  we  spend, 
O'er  the  same  simple  board  our  cares  unbend. 
Surely  our  lives  are  linked  by  some  fixed  law. 
And  from  one  guiding  star  their  courses  draw.^ 

The  biography  relates  that  the  satires  quickly 
became  the  rage,  Probus  deemed  them  worthy  of  a 
commentary  from  his  pen,  Quintilian  praises  them,^  the 
Fathers  quote  them,  and  we  actually  possess  some 
fifty  lines  of  the  first  satire  (along  with  a  corresponding 
portion  of  Juvenal)  in  a  Bobbio  MS.  written  about 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century.  The  Middle  Ages 
I  affected  Persius,  and  his  text  has  reached  us  in  a  very 
good  state  of  preservation.  Of  modern  satirists 
Hall  and  Marston  knew  him,  the  latter  complaining 
of  him  as  a  '  crabby '  writer,  whose  '  jerks  '  are  '  dusky ' ; 
Boileau  has  some  unmistakable  echoes,  and  Dryden 
translated  him.  Quotations  abound  in  writers  like 
Petrarch,  Montaigne,  Jonson,  Jeremy  Taylor,  and 
Burton,  who,  it  may  be  observed,  claims  to  have  the 
'  girhsh  bashfulness  '  which  the  biography  attributes 
to  our  author.  Milton  parodies  the  hmping  iambics 
so  that  they  may  apply  to  Salmasius,  Cowley  is  sure 
that  Persius  is  no  good  poet  if  S.  L.  cannot  under- 
stand him,  Johnson  stops  Goldsmith's  apology  for 
the  meanness  of  his  chambers  with  a  Persian  tag. 
Mommsen's  description  of  him  as  the  beau  ideal  of  a 
conceited  and  uninspired  student  poet  represents 
the  average  view  of  modern  times  :  ^  perhaps  the  last 
critic  of  importance  to  vouchsafe  praise  was  Coleridge, 

*  5.  21-46. 

^  Quint.  10.  I.  94  multum  et  verae  gloriae  quamuis  uno  libro  meruit. 
'  History  of  Rome  i.  15. 


74     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

who  finds  in  him  '  many  passages  of  exquisite  fehcity,' 
a  vein  of  thought  '  manly  and  pathetic'  ^ 

To  a  satirist  named  Tumus,  whom  his  contemporary 
Martial  and  later  writers  mention,^  was  at  one  time 
assigned  a  passage  of  some  thirty  hnes  pubhshed  by 
the  elder  Balzac  in  his  Entretiens  '  from  an  old  MS.' 
It  is  practically  certain  that  they  were  the  discoverer's 
own  composition,  so  that  two  hexameters  quoted  by 
the  schoha  on  Juvenal  ^  are  all  that  remains  to  us  of 
the  work  of  this  writer. 

The  MSS.  of  Decimus  lunius  luvenahs  present  us 
with  a  dozen  lives  of  the  poet  :  unfortunately  they 
are  all  at  variance  with  each  other,  and  there  is  only 
one  upon  which  even  partial  rehance  can  be  placed. 
This  says  nothing  as  to  his  birthplace  or  the  dates 
of  his  birth  and  death,  but  avers  that  he  was  the  son, 
or  the  foster-child,  of  a  rich  freedman,  and  started 
writing  satire  after  middle  age,  having  till  then 
practised  declamation — as  a  hobby  rather  than  as  an 
exercise.  Some  of  this  tallies  with  the  fact  that  the 
poet  himself  speaks  of  youth  as  a  thing  long  past, 
and  Martial,  thrice  mentioning  him  in  publications 
of  A.D.  92  and  A.D.  102,^  makes  no  reference  to  his 
verse,  but  does  once  apply  to  him  the  epithet  eloquent. 
But  the  pUce  de  resistance  of  this  life  is  very  indigestible. 
The  poet,  we  read,  shrank  at  the  outset  from  making 
his  work  widely  known  :  later  on,  however,  he  became 
famous,  and  then  it  was  that  he  inserted  in  a  new 
satire,  the  seventh  of  those  we  possess,  three  Hnes  from 

»  Table-talk,  Sept.  2,  1833. 

2  Mart.  II.  10.  I,  Rutil.  Namat.  i.  604,  Sidon.  Carm.  9.  266. 
'  On  I.  71. 

*  II.  201    spectent  iuuenes].  .  .  nostra  bibat  uernum  contracta 
cuticula  solem  :   cp.  i.  25. 

'  7.  24  and  91  {facunde  .  .  .  luuenalis),  12.  18. 


4 


VERSE  SATIRE  75 

one  of  the  early,  little-known  ones,  directed  against 
Domitian's  favourite  actor  Paris.  It  so  happened 
that  just  then  an  actor  was  once  more  popular  at  court, 
and  Juvenal  was  suspected  of  having  alluded  to  the 
fact.  His  punishment  took  the  form  of  a  compliment, 
and  he  was  sent,  at  eighty  years  of  age,  to  command 
a  remote  outpost  in  Egypt,  where  he  soon  died  of 
chagrin  and  boredom.  There  seems  to  be  a  germ 
of  truth  in  all  this  :  the  poet  himself  once  impHes 
that  he  has  been  in  Egypt ;  1  Malalas,  in  the  sixth 
century,  says  that  Domitian  banished  Juvenal  to 
Cyrenaica  (which  adjoined  Egypt)  for  a  hit  at  his 
partiality  for  Paris,  ^  and  Sidonius,  in  the  fifth,  refers 
to  a  poet  who  suffered  exile  through  giving  offence 
to  an  actor.  ^  But  the  details  are  full  of  difficulty. 
Who  was  this  emperor — not,  presumably,  Domitian — 
who  idolized  a  player  ?  Could  a  military  post  of  this 
kind  be  given  an  octogenarian  ?  How  is  it  the  three 
lines  fit  so  well  their  present  place  ?  ^  One  turns 
in  despair  to  the  satires  themselves.  In  the  third, 
the  words  your  Aquinum,  which  occur  in  some  remarks 
addressed  to  Juvenal  by  a  friend,^  suggest  that  he  was 
born  in  that  town,  and  the  scholia  tell  us  that  some 
authorities  definitely  said  this.  An  inscription  re- 
cording the  fact  that  a  Junius  Juvenal  did,  about 
our  Juvenal's  time,  dedicate  an  offering  in  a  temple 
of  Ceres  that  stood  near  Aquinum  and  is  actually 
coupled  with  it  in  the  passage  just  mentioned,  lends 
some  support  to  this  hypothesis.^     In  Satire  Fifteen 

*  15.  44  horrida  sane\Aegyptos,  sed  luxuria,  quantum  ipse  notaui,\ 
barbara  famoso  non  cedit  turba  Canopo. 

*  Chron.  lo  p.  341  Chilm.  "  Carm.  9.  271  sqq. 

*  7.  90-92.  *  3.  319. 

*  C.  I.  L.  10.  5382.  The  identification  of  this  man  with  the  poet 
is  now  in  bad  odour  :  there  may  well  have  been  other  lunii  luvenales 
living  in  the  neighbourhood.     He  had  been  a  soldier,  and  it  is  not 


76     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Juvenal  speaks  of  a  man  who  was  consul  in  a.d.  127 
as  '  lately  consul,'  ^  must  therefore,  at  any  rate,  have 
survived  that  year.  Nowhere  is  there  a  hint  to  suggest 
publication  under  Domitian.  Three  of  the  five  satires 
which  constitute  Book  One  presuppose  the  tyrant's 
death, 2  the  sixth  (Book  Two)  contains  a  passage  that 
can  scarce  have  been  written  before  a.d.  115,^  in 
Book  Five  the  thirteenth  purports  to  belong  to  a.d.  127,* 
and  the  fifteenth  we  have  just  seen  to  fall  later  than  that 
year.  It  looks,  in  fact,  as  if  the  order  of  the  books 
is  that  of  their  composition. 

The  first  satire  is  introductory  :  the  poet  rejects 
the  stale  themes  of  epic  and  tragedy  :  the  vice  of  the 
age  inspires  him  with  indignation  to  which  he  must 
give  vent.  But  he  is  going  to  be  cautious  and  attack 
only  the  dead — 

Interlocutor.  Aeneas  'gainst  bold  Tumus  you  can  send  : 
No  one  takes  umbrage  at  Acliilles'  end, 
Or  that  long  quest  for  Hylas  at  the  well 
What  time  he  followed  where  his  pitcher  fell. 
But  when  Lucilius,  all  his  soul  ablaze, 
Draws,  as  it  were,  his  sword  and  furious  bays. 
Then  one  whose  conscience  shivers,  though  his  breast 
Be  scalding  hot  with  sins  yet  unconfessed. 
Feels  his  cheeks  redden  :    this  it  is  that  fires 
Resentment  fierce,  'tis  this  their  tears  inspires. 
So  ponder  well,  before  the  trumpets  bray  : 
The  helmet  donned,  'tis  late  to  rue  the  fray. 

Juvenal.  So  be  it  then  :   my  hand  on  them  I  '11  try 
'Neath  Latin  or  Flaminian  road  that  lie.^ 

The  second  satire  deals  with  the  seamiest  side  of 

easy  to  believe  that  the  writer  of  Satire  Sixteen  had.  Of  course,  if 
he  had,  the  story  of  the  Egyptian  command  becomes  a  shade  less 
improbable. 

^  L.  27.  *  Sat.  I  passim,  2.  29  sqq.,  4.  153. 

'  L.  407  must  allude  to  the  comet  of  that  year. 

*  The  imaginary  interlocutor  has  passed  his   sixtieth  year,  and 
was  born  in  67  a.d.  (see  11.  16,  17). 

*  I.  162-171. 


VERSE  SATIRE  'j^ 

J^oman  morals.  In  the  third  Umbricius,  removing 
to  the  country,  descants  upon  the  drawbacks  of  life 
in  the  capital — the  impossibility  of  competing  with 
foreign  immigrants,  the  power  of  money,  the  noise 
and  dangers. 

Conceive  a  witness  of  such  honesty 

As  marked  the  famous  host  of  Cybele, 

Call  Numa  up,  or  him  that  once  brought  aid 

To  Pallas,  'midst  her  temple's  flames  dismayed  : 

'Tis  to  his  income  straight  will  turn  the  quest ; 

His  character— that 's  the  last  thing  to  test. 

'  What  servants  does  he  keep  ?    What  acreage  own  ? 

How  many  courses  make  his  table  groan  ?  ' 

The  cash  you  've  in  your  cofifers  put  away 

Measures  the  faith  men  give  to  what  you  say. 

By  Samothracian  altars  you  may  swear. 

And  Roman  too  :    little,  they  deem,  you  care 

For  thunderbolts  and  gods,  poor  folk  like  you 

(And  Heaven  itself  deems  not  its  vengeance  due). 

Again,  what  cause  he  gives  for  merriment 

This  same  poor  man,  with  cloak  all  soiled  and  rent, 

And  shabby  clothes,  when  open  gapes  a  shoe 

Or  shows  fresh  patches,  neither  neat  nor  few. 

This  is  vile  poverty's  unkindest  cut 

Man  to  his  fellow-man  it  makes  a  butt.  .  .  . 

'Tis  hard  for  worth  to  rise  in  any  home 
Where  means  are  cramped,  but  hardest  here  at  Rome. 
Quite  despicable  quarters  cost  a  deal, 
So  do  slaves'  rations  and  the  plainest  meal. 
Off  common  ware  you  blush  to  eat,  and  yet 
Were  you  this  moment  'mongst  the  Marsi  set 
Or  at  some  Sabine  board,  'twere  well  enough. 
Why,  you  'd  not  scorn  a  smock  frock,  green  and  rough. 
In  many  parts— if  truth  be  but  avowed— 
None  dons  a  toga  till  he  needs  a  shroud. 
And  when  returns  upon  some  gala  day 
To  grass-grown  theatre  the  favourite  play 
And  the  pale  mask  with  ghastly  grin  alarms 
The  farmer's  infant  in  its  mother's  arms, 
StaUs  and  pit  dress  alike  :   not  e'en  the  mayor 
More  than  white  blouse  to  mark  his  state  will  wear. 


78     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

At  Rome,  we  've  smartness  that  our  means  exceeds 
And  sometimes  draw  the  balance  o'er  our  needs 
From  other's  store.     You  see  't  where'er  you  go, 
This  foible — poverty  that  still  must  make  a  show.^ 

The  fourth  satire  describes  the  assembling  and 
dehberations  of  a  council  summoned  by  Domitian  to 
discuss  the  proper  method  of  cooking  a  monster 
turbot  with  which  he  has  been  presented,  the  fifth, 
the  insulting  treatment  of  the  dependent  by  his  patron 
when  he  is  at  last  deemed  worthy  of  an  invitation  to 
dinner.  The  sixth  attains  a  length  of  some  700  lines, 
nearly  twice  that  of  the  longest  of  the  others,  and 
presents,  in  the  form  of  a  warning  against  marriage 
addressed  to  a  friend  who  is  contemplating  it,  a  satirical 
picture  of  various  types  of  women — the  heiress  who 
claims  absolute  independence,  the  perfect  woman, 
with  whom  mere  man  finds  life  difficult,  the  woman 
who  punctuates  her  conversation  with  Greek  phrases, 
the  athletic  woman,  the  woman  who  knows  the  latest 
news  and  the  most  piquant  scandal,  the  blue-stocking, 
the  devote  and  others.^  Satire  Seven  laments  the 
inadequacy  of  the  remuneration  received  by  members 
of  the  learned  professions.  The  lot  of  the  teacher 
of  rhetoric  is  vigorously  depicted  : 

Rhetoric  d'  ye  teach  ?  Then  iron  nerves  you  need 

When  at  your  class's  hands  the  tyrants  bleed. ^  .  .  . 

The  wretched  master's  ears  the  singsong  fills. 

His  cabbage  diet,  that  ne'er  varied  kills. 

What  plea  will  serve,  the  pivot  of  the  case. 

The  category  where  it  finds  a  place, 

The  things  the  other  side  is  sure  to  say — 

This  all  would  know,  but  none  the  fee  would  pay. 

1  3.  137-153,  164-183. 

2  6.  136  sqq.,  166  sqq.,  184  sqq.,  246  sqq.,  398  sqq.,  434  sqq.,  511  sqq. 
*  The  reward  to  be  received  by  a  man  who  had  assassinated  a 

tyrant  was  often  the  theme  of  a  controuersia  (see  p.  257). 


VERSE  SATIRE  79 

'  What  have  I  learned,  that  you  a  fee  should  claim  ?  ' 

'  Oh  yes,  of  course  :    'tis  I  must  take  the  blame 

If  there  's  no  throb  of  genius  in  a  lout 

Whose  rantings  stun  my  brain,  week  in  week  out — 

Whatever  Hannibal  must  needs  decide. 

Whether  from  Cannae  straight  on  Rome  to  ride. 

Whether  to  rain  and  thunderbolts  to  yield 

And  march  his  dripping  regiments  off  the  field.^ 

Ask  what  you  will,  it 's  yours  if  you  his  dad 

Can  coax  as  oft  as  I  to  hear  the  lad.' 

Sextettes  of  teachers  sing  tlois  tale  of  woe. 

To  law  constrained  in  earnest  now  to  go. 

The  brutal  ravisher,  the  cup  that  slays, 

The  man  that  wife's  devotion  ill  repays, 

The  drugs  that  vision  long  since  lost  restore  ^ — 

All  this,  in  silence  sunk,  is  heard  no  more.^ 

Satire   Eight   is    almost    philosophical    enough    for 

Persius  :  its  theme,  Virtue  the  only  true  nobility,  is  that 

of  a  letter  of  Seneca's.     There  is  a  striking  reference 

to  Marius  and  Cicero  : 

Cethegus,  Catiline  !  Could  any  claim 

A  nobler  stock  than  that  of  which  you  came  ? 

And  yet,  as  though  your  sires  were  trousered  Gauls, 

You  plan  by  night  to  storm  and  fire  our  walls, 

Dare  deeds  that  well  the  fiery  shirt  might  earn 

Wherein  incendiaries  are  put  to  burn. 

The  consul  checks  you  :    ne'er  he  seems  to  tire, 

Arpinum's  upstart  :    this  mere  country  squire 

All  o'er  the  startled  city  sets  his  guard 

Armed  to  the  teeth,  on  all  seven  hills  toils  hard. 

So  there  at  home  his  plain  civilian  gown 

Won  him  as  great  a  name,  as  fair  renown 

As  could  Octavian's  ever-dripping  sword 

At  Actium  or  Philippi  bring  its  lord. 

Parent  and  Country's  Father  both  may  be. 

But  Rome  hailed  Cicero  thus  when  she  was  free. 

Another  scion  of  that  self-same  soil 
Used  as  a  ploughman  hired  at  first  to  toil. 
Enlisting  then,  if  slow  to  wield  the  pick 
In  trenching,  oft  he  felt  the  sergeant's  stick. 


^  These  four  lines  refer  to  suasoria  thenaes. 
"  The  allusion  here  is  to  controuersia  themes. 
»  7.  150-170. 


8o      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Yet,  when  the  Cimbrians  come  and  Rome's  dismayed, 

In  danger's  crisis  he  alone  brings  aid. 

So,  when  the  crows  are  flocking  o'er  the  sky, 

Bound  for  the  plain  where  piled-vip  Cimbrians  lie 

(On  corpses  ne'er  they  lit  of  ampler  size). 

His  highborn  colleague  takes  but  second  prize. ^ 

The  ninth  satire  is  as  unsavoury  as  the  second, 
the  next  elaborates  the  theme  of  Persius'  second, 
the  folly  of  the  average  man's  prayer,  and  is  the 
original  of  Johnson's  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes.  Satire 
Eleven,  couched  in  the  form  of  an  invitation  to  dinner, 
attacks  the  gluttony  of  the  day  and  extols  the  simple 
table  of  old  times.  Twelve  opens  with  a  sacrifice 
in  honour  of  a  friend's  escape  from  a  storm  at  sea  : 
after  some  account  of  this  last,  the  sldlful  remark, 
'  My  friend  has  children,  so  I  can  have  no  ulterior 
object  in  paying  him  this  tribute,'  ^  enables  the  poet 
to  pass  into  a  tirade  against  the  prevalent  vice  of 
legacy-hunting.  In  Satire  Thirteen  a  friend  is  re- 
buked for  taking  overmuch  to  heart  the  treachery 
of  a  friend  who  denies  all  knowledge  of  money  which 
he  has  deposited  in  his  charge.  '  'Tis  so  common 
an  experience  :  an  honest  man  's  as  rare  a  miracle  as 
a  mule  in  foal.  The  offender's  conscience,  the  most 
merciless  of  torturers,  will  avenge  you.'  ^  Fourteen 
is  mainly  pedagogic,  enforcing  the  influence  which 
parental  example  exercises  on  the  child  ;  at  the  end  * 
Juvenal  draws  a  perfectly  general  picture  of  the 
troubles  in  which  the  pursuit  and  maintenance  of 
wealth  involves  men.  The  fifteenth  starts  hkeaSenecan 
letter,  with  a  piquant  incident — a  sanguinary  battle 
between  two  Egyptian  tribes  :  the  cannibahsm  per- 
petrated by   the    victory   affords   a   transition    to    a 

1  8.  231-253.  At  11.  93  sqq. 

'  13.  60  sqq.,  192  sqq.  'From  U.  126  onwards. 


VERSE  SATIRE  8i 

general  protest  against  man's  bloodthirstiness,  in 
which  the  voice  of  diatribe  is  unmistakable. ^  We 
end  with  a  piece  depicting,  from  the  civilian  point  of 
view,  the  happy  lot  of  the  soldier,  and  ending  abruptly 
at  hne  sixty.  Our  best  MS.  apparently  at  one  time 
contained  more,  if  not  the  whole  of  it. 

The  defects  of  Juvenal's  work  are  obvious  and 
serious.  His  refusal  to  attack  the  living  suggests 
a  detachment  from  the  present  almost  as  fatal  for 
satire  as  that  from  reahty  proved  for  declamation, 
and  certainly  incompatible  with  the  prolonged  scream 
of  his  indignation.  And  just  as  one  ought  not  to  be 
so  angry  at  the  shortcomings  of  bygone  times,  so 
one  ought  not,  being  so  angry,  to  have  time  to  indulge 
in  some  encyclopaedic  digression  on  a  theme  but 
remotely  connected  with  the  matter  in  hand — as 
Juvenal  often  does,  though  seldom  so  impudently  as 
where,  after  having  occasion  to  refer  to  the  legacy- 
hunters'  way  of  vowing  to  sacrifice  a  hundred  oxen 
in  case  of  their  patron's  recovery,  he  throws  in  the 
remark,  *  And  were  elephants  to  be  bought  in  Rome, 
they  would  offer  a  hundred  of  them,'  simply,  it  would 
appear,  to  introduce  an  eight-lined  excursus  on  elephants 
and  their  places  of  provenance.'^  Such  ill-timed  learn- 
ing reminds  us  of  Lucan  and  his  brother  epics,  and 
so  does  the  tendency  to  overdraw,  of  which  I  must 
again  content  myself  with  a  single  instance  —  the 
picture  of  a  common  forge,  with  '  coals  and  tongs 
and  anvil  and  smoke  '  presided  over  by  a  blacksmith 
father  '  half  blind  with  soot  from  the  glowing  metal,'  ' 
with  which  Juvenal  adorns  his  point  that  Demosthenes 

*  See  esp.  11.  131  sqq.  *  12.  joi  sqq. 

*  10.  130  quern  pater  ardentis  massae  fuligine  lippus  \  a  carhone  et 
forcipibus  gladiosque  paranti  \  incude  et  luieo  Vulcano  ad  rhetora  misit. 


82     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

would  have  done  well  to  repress  ambition  and  stay 
in  his  father's  sword  factory.  He  has  not  much 
more  sense  of  humour  than  Persius,  but  is  un- 
fortunately more  prone  to  indulge  it.  A  typical 
example  is  the  anti-chmax  with  which  he  ends  a  passage 
in  which  he  argues  that  as  a  matricide  Orestes  had 
a  much  better  case  than  Nero.  '  Orestes  revenged 
his  father,  he  didn't  kill  his  sister  or  his  wife  or  poison 
his  relations — 

Orestes  ne'er  appeared  at  music  hall 
Or  in  an  epic  told  of  Ilion's  fall.^ 

All  the  same,  Juvenal  has  always  been  a  favourite 
with  lovers  of  forcible  writing  and  students  of 
humanity.  Of  the  vigour  of  his  pen  I  hope  the 
specimens  already  quoted  from  his  work  will  be  able 
in  spite  of  all  the  imperfections  of  translation  to 
give  the  reader  some  idea.  Many  of  his  epigrams 
and  maxims  have  become  proverbial  in  the  literature 
of  modern  Europe,  largely,  I  think,  because  they 
are  expressed  in  that  terse,  emphatic  form  which  we 
are  apt  to  accept  as  virtual  proof  of  the  truth  or 
propriety  of  a  saying.  They  submit  very  unwillingly 
to  the  ordeal  of  transplantation,  and  my  attempt 
to  reproduce  a  few  in  English  dress  is  made  with 
but  too  acute  a  consciousness  of  its  inadequacy.  At 
its  best,  the  English  iambic  is  a  poor  substitute  for 
the  rolling,  Lucretian  hexameter  of  Juvenal — 

Virtue's  admired — and  shivers  with  the  cold. 

None  in  a  moment  e'er  grew  wholly  vile. 

There  's  nothing  costs  a  man  less  than  his  son, 

*  Breath  before  honour  deem  it  sin  to  choose 
And  for  mere  Uving's  sake  life's  motives  lose. 

Heaven  loves  man  more  than  man  doth  love  himself. 

Indulgence  rare  to  pleasures  lendeth  zest. 

*  8.  220,  221. 


VERSE  SATIRE  83 

*  This  by  his  crime  the  noose,  that  earns  the  throne. 

Revenge  deUghts  the  small,  weak,  paltry  mind. 

He  that  plots  secret  crime  his  soul  within 
Is  straightway  guilty  of  the  actual  sin. 

'Tis  unto  children  most  respect  is  due, 

*  How  you  've  got  rich,  none  cares  :   rich  you  must  be. 

No  man's  contented  just  so  much  to  sin 
As  you  may  license  him. 

*  Ne'er  Nature  this  and  Reason  that  asserts. ^ 

Those  who  can  distinguish  the  personaUty  of  a 
writer  from  the  dress  with  wliich  the  fashion  of  the 
day  invests  him  will  see  no  reason  to  believe  that  these 
are  the  sayings  of  a  mere  copy-book  morahst,  a  phrase- 
monger. But  the  main  secret  of  the  popularity 
which  the  satires  have  enjoyed  is  almost  certainly 
to  be  found  rather  in  the  magnificent  panorama 
of  Rome's  everyday  Ufe  which  they  present  to  their 
readers.  No  Golden  Age  writer  approaches  Juvenal  in 
this  respect :  of  the  two  Silver  authors  who  do,  Martial, 
handUng  the  same  subjects,  gives  us  but  hasty  sketches 
and  impressions,  whilst  the  younger  Pliny  is  obviously 
inferior  in  range  to  the  painter  of  the  street  scenes 
of  Satire  Three,  the  portraits  of  Four  and  Six,  the 
Patron's  Banquet  of  Five,  the  Aristocrat  Gladiator 
of  Eight,  the  Fall  of  Sejanus  of  Ten. 

The  schoUa  contain  matter  that  suggests  a  com- 
mentary on  the  satires  such  as  is  not  likely  to  have 
been  composed  long  after  their  appearance.  But 
there  is  no  sign  of  their  influence  upon  literature  until 
the  fourth  century,  when  Ammian  testifies  to  their 

*  The  references,  in  the  order  of  the  text,  are  :  i.  74  ;  2.  83  ; 
7.  187;  8.  83,  84;  10.  350;  II.  208;  13.  105;  13.  189,  190;  13. 
209,  210;  14.  47;  14.  207;  14.  233,  234;  14.  321.  The  asterisk 
denotes  that  the  original  is  a  complete  line  or  distich. 


84     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

popularity  in  certain  circles/  the  poets  Ausonius, 
Prudentius,  and  Claudian  imitate  them,  Lactantius 
and  Servius  cite  them,  and  the  latter's  pupil  Nicaeus 
produces  an  edition. ^  To  this  period  is  generally 
assigned  the  Bobbio  MS.  of  p.  73.  No  other  dates 
earher  than  the  ninth  century.  It  was  in  one  belonging 
to  the  eleventh,  now  preserved  at  Oxford,  that  E,  O. 
Winstedt  in  1899  discovered  a  passage  of  thirty-four 
hnes  and  a  distich  which  belong  to  Satire  Six,  and 
though  found  in  no  other  known  MS.  are  unquestion- 
ably Juvenal's  work.^  In  the  Middle  Ages  our  poet 
is  much  read,  enjoying  especial  honour  as  one  of  the 
ethici  or  moral  writers.     Chaucer's 

O  Juvenal  lord,  soth  is  thy  sentence 
That  htel  witen  folk  what  is  to  yerne  * 

refers  to  Satire  Ten.  Later  on,  the  satirists,  hke 
Hall  and  Marston,  Regnier  and  Boileau,  know  him 
well :  the  latter's  first  and  tenth  satires  following 
closely  the  Roman's  third  and  sixth.  D'Aubigne, 
who  has  more  of  Juvenal's  spirit  than  any  of  the  others, 
avoids  direct  borrowing.  The  translation  which  bears 
Dryden's  name  contains  only  five  versions  direct 
from  his  pen.  Pope  draws  inspiration  from  these 
and  the  original,  which  naturally  gives  the  Spectator 
many  texts.  Johnson's  London  and  Vanity  of  Human 
Wishes  are  free  adaptations  of  Satires  Three  and  Ten. 
Byron  shows  some  knowledge  of  the  satires,  noting 
in  Don  Juan  that  Egeria's  spring  has  recovered  the 
natural  charms  of  which  '  modern  improvements ' 
had  deprived  it  in  Juvenal's  time  and  echoing  the  first 
in  the  early  parts  of  English  Bards. 

^  Ammian.  Marcell.  28.  4.  14. 

2  The  suhscviptiones  of  two  MSS.  testify  to  it. 

3  E.  O.  Winstedt,  A  Bodleian  MS.  of  Juvenal,  in  Class.  Rev.  1889. 
*  Troilus  and  Criseyde,  iv.  197,  198. 


CHAPTER  V 
LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE 

§  I.    The  Fable 

THE  MSS.  style  Phaedrus '  freedman  of  Augus- 
tus '  :  he  himself,  in  his  prologues  and 
epilogues,  tells  us  that  he  was  born  '  on  Mount 
Pieria  '  ^  (in  Macedon),  first  pubUshed  two  books  of 
fables  which  contained  along  with  those  usually  ascribed 
to  Aesop  a  number  of  more  or  less  similar  pieces  of  his 
own  invention, 2  was  prosecuted  (because  of  the  in- 
terpretation put  upon  some  of  these)  by  Tiberius' 
favourite  Seianus,^  dedicated  a  third  book  of  fables 
to  one  Eutychus  *  (generally  identified  with  an  in- 
fluential charioteer  of  Cahgula's  times),  and  then 
went  on  to  compose  a  fourth  and  fifth, ^  in  which  he 
became  very  independent  of  his  Greek  model.  ^ 
Frequent  references  to  malignant  criticism  and  an 
exaggerated  conception  of  his  hterary  importance ' 
mark  Phaedrus  out  as  a  forerunner  of  some  half- 
educated  and  self-conscious  authors  of  modem  times. 
The  fables  that  have  reached  us  do  not  represent 
the  whole  of  these  five  books.     We  miss  the  '  speaking 

1  3  prol.  17.  *  2  prol.  9  sqq.,  3  prol.  38,  39. 

»  3  prol.  40  sqq.  *  3  prol.  ^  4  prol.  1-3,  14,  15  ;  5  prol- 

•  Cp.  4  prol.  II  quas  Aesopias,  non  Aesopi,  nomino\qnia  paucas 
ille  ostendit,  ego  pluris  sero  |  usus  uetusto  genere  sed  rebus  nouis, 
5  prol.  I  Aesopi  nomen  sicubi  interposuero\cui  reddidi  iam  pridem 
quidquid  debui  |  auctoritatis  esse  scito  gratia. 

'  See  2  epil.  8  quod  si  labori fauerit  Latium  meo\plures habebit  quos 
opponat  Graeciae  :   cp.  3-  9-  3,  4  ;   4  prol.  15  sqq.  ;   4.  21. 

85 


86     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

trees/  which  Phaedrus  mentions  as  to  be  found  in  his 
work ;  i  Books  Two  and  Five  are  not  half  the  length 
of  the  others.  Some  of  what  is  lost  may  he  hidden 
in  Perotti's  fifteenth  -  century  collection  of  fables 
'  from  Aesop,  Avianus,  and  Phaedrus,'  which  contains, 
along  with  thirty-two  pieces  that  figure  in  our  Phaedrus 
and  thirty-six  from  Avianus,  thirty-one  that  Perotti 
seems  to  have  taken  for  the  work  of  Aesop,  but  which 
read  very  hke  Phaedrus.  Again,  in  the  Romulus 
collection  to  be  mentioned  presently,  there  are  fables 
which,  in  spite  of  the  prose  form  in  which  they  are  now 
clad,  show  signs  of  having  originally  been  written  in 
verse,  and  exhibit  certain  characteristics  of  his. 

Fabulari  means  simply  '  to  talk,'  and  '  tale '  will 
cover  all  Phaedrus'  fabulae,  the  first  apparently  to 
appear  in  Latin  as  an  independent  form  of  literary 
composition.  They  may  be  roughly  classified  as  beast 
fables  of  the  type  with  which  we  have  been  famiHar 
from  infancy,  short  anecdotes  culminating  in  a  moral 
apophthegm  or  witty  (sometimes  indecent)  point, 
and  narratives  which,  just  as  the  flippant  anecdotes 
remind  us  of  Poggio's  Facetiae,  seem  to  contain  the 
germ  of  the  conte  or  short  novel  of  the  Decameron 
and  La  Fontaine.  Whether  or  no  all  these  categories 
were  to  be  found  in  Aesop  it  is  impossible  to  state 
with  certainty  :  we  know  so  httle  about  the  father 
of  fable  and  his  work.  But  we  know  a  good  deal 
about  the  '  first  year  course  '  in  rhetorical  schools, 
and,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  '  Aesopian  fables,'  apo- 
phthegmatic  anecdotes  {chriae)  and  brief  narratives 
were  standing  items  therein,  ^  may  be  pardoned  for 
suspecting  that  Phaedrus  got  much  of  his  inspiration 
out  of  his  lecture  note-books.     That  the  more  or  less 

^  I  prol.  5,  6.  *  See  Wilkins,  Roman  Education,  p.  78. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE     87 

licentious  conte  should  take  its  rise  from  an  educational 

source  wiU  surprise  no  one  who  remembers  certain 

declamation  themes  and  observes  the  skill  with  which 

Phaedrus  finds  some  kind  of  moral  for  the  most  slippery 

of  his  stories.     The  account  given  in  one  of  the  pieces 

of  how  a  suspicious  husband,  rushing  into  the  darkness 

of  his  wife's  chamber  and  there  laying  hold  of  a  man's 

head,  kills  his  innocent  son,  whom  the  mother,  anxious 

to  protect  him  from  temptation,  has  given  a  bed  in 

her  own  room,  and  how,  on  his  at  once  committing 

suicide,  she  is  charged  with  the  murder,  apparently, 

of   both!  —  this   account   has,    as   a  matter  of  fact, 

much  in  common  with  the  themes  of  more  than  one 

of    the    controuersiae.     Another   bears    the    title    The 

Rich  and  Poor  Suitors,^  a  point  not  without  interest  in 

view  of  the  fact  that  the  rich  man  and  the  poor  man 

are  standing  figures  of  the  declamations.     The  reader 

may  care  to  see  a  version  of  this  poem,  which  is  one 

of  Perotti's  thirty-one  pieces,  and  reads  to  me  very 

like  one  of  the  tamer  novels  of  the  Decameron  : 

Two  youths  together  once  did  woo  a  maid  : 

But  wealth  the  poor  man's  birth  and  looks  outweighed. 

The  lover,  loth  to  see  his  rival  wed, 

The  day  of  marriage  to  his  gardens  fled. 

A  httle  farther  on  than  this  retreat 

The  rich  man  had  a  splendid  countryseat, 

And  as  his  house  in  town  too  cramped  was  thought 

Hither  the  bride,  'twas  settled,  should  be  brought. 

See,  marshalled  now  at  length,  the  train  proceeds  : 

Crowds  gather  round,  and  Hymen's  flambeau  leads. 

An  ass,  the  poor  man's  only  hvelihood. 

There  at  the  very  gate  convenient  stood. 

This  for  the  bride,  for  fear  the  journey  tire 

Her  dainty  feet  (it  so  falls  out),  they  hire. 

Sudden  the  gales  by  pitying  Venus  sent 

Begin  to  rock  the  very  firmament. 

^  3.  10  :   cp.  Sen.  Contr.  7.  5,  Quint.  Decl.  Mai.  2. 
^  Perotti's  Addenda,  No.  14. 


88     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Loud  peals  of  thunder  every  heart  affright 

And  massing  rainclouds  breed  a  dismal  night. 

Hail  'midst  the  darkness  scatters  all  the  train 

Each  for  himself  to  find  protection  fain. 

With  this,  the  ass  begins  a  course  to  steer 

For  the  familiar  home,  that  lay  so  near. 

Its  safe  arrival  brayings  loud  declare  ; 

The  slaves  rush  out,  perceive  its  burden  fair, 

And  marvelling  to  their  lord  the  tidings  bear. 

He  at  a  table  with  his  friends  was  set 

Hoping  in  wine  his  passion  to  forget. 

A  different  man  at  their  report  he  grew. 

From  Bacchus  and  from  Venus  took  his  cue 

And  wedded  there,  amidst  the  applauding  crew. 

O'er  all  the  town  the  maid  her  parents  cried. 

And  sore  the  groom  was  vexed  to  lose  his  bride. 

But  every  soul  to  whom  the  tale  got  known 

The  choice  that  Heaven  had  made  declared  lois  own. 

The  specimen  is  rather  a  typical  one.  Phaedrus' 
Latin  is  neat  and  even  graceful  :  no  doubt  he  ideahzes 
the  everyday  speech  of  educated  Romans  very  much 
as  La  Fontaine  that  of  Louis  Fourteenth's  courtiers. 
But  he  is  very  sUpshod  in  constructional  matters. 
The  morals  often  fit  their  fables  but  ill ;  The  Thief 
and  the  Lamp}  of  which  he  was  perhaps  the  only 
begetter,  has  no  less  than  three,  all  hopelessly  far- 
fetched and  inadequate.  La  Fontaine's  praise  of 
his  brevity  ignores  the  obscurity  into  which  it  so 
often  leads  him.  In  the  conte  just  translated  we  are 
left  to  infer  that  the  rich  man  was  ugly  and  ill-born, 
the  parents'  choice,  not  the  lady's,  and  it  is  not  easy 
to  see  why  the  unsuccessful  suitor  should  receive  the 
distinctive  title  of  lover.  Is  the  gate  that  of  the  poor 
man's  garden  ?  If  so,  the  responsible  party's  con- 
sideration for  the  bride  was  rather  belated,  Phaedrus 
having  taken  pains  to  let  us  know  that  her  goal  was 

1  4-  II- 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE     89 

not  much  farther  on.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  the 
city  gate,  what  was  the  poor  man's  ass  doing  there  ? 
The  naif  story-teller  can,  of  course,  take  many  details 
of  this  kind  for  granted,  but  something  more  may 
surely  be  expected  of  the  elegant  raconteur.  This 
curious  combination  of  art  and  negligence  is  reflected 
even  in  the  prosody  of  the  iambics,  which  though 
otherwise  constructed  with  all  the  polish  and  strictness 
that  characterize  the  later  treatment  of  this  metre, 
nevertheless  allow  the  spondee  its  old  -  fashioned 
privilege  of  appearing  in  any  foot  except  the  last. 

All  the  same,  the  reader  who  turns  to  Phaedrus 
simply  for  entertainment  will  not  be  disappointed. 
Perhaps  the  best  of  all  his  stories  is  that  of  the  mis- 
fortune that  befel  a  flute  -  player  named  Princeps 
(prince). 1  This  popular  favourite,  on  his  return  to 
the  theatre  after  an  absence  of  some  months  brought 
about  by  an  accident  on  the  stage,  hears,  as  he  stands 
in  the  wings  expecting  an  enthusiastic  reception, 
the  chorus  singing  : 

Let  fervent  rapture  every  bosom  thrill : 

Rome  is  preserved  :   her  prince  is  with  her  still.    ■ 

The  audience  at  once  rises  to  its  feet  to  do  honour 

to  the  imperial  house,  but  Princeps,  who  has  never 

heard  the  song  before,  takes  the  words  as  a  special 

tribute   to   himself   and   comes   forward   to   take   the 

curtain.     The  stalls  grasp  the  situation  and  encore 

with   vigour,    whereupon   the   dupe   commits   himself 

so  thoroughly  that  even  the  gallery  realize  what  is 

happening,  with  the  result  that  : 

Poor  Prince,  his  legs  with  garters  circled  white, 

In  snowy  shirt  and  boots  with  pipeclay  bright, 

All  flushed  with  honours  for  the  emperor  meant, 

Into  the  streets  is  cast  incontinent. 

__ 


go     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Seneca's  reference  to  the  Aesopian  fable  as  virgin 
soil  for  Roman  writers  ^  seems  to  ignore  Phaedrus. 
Martial's  epithet  naughty  ^  implies  appreciation  only 
of  part  of  his  matter.  Three  or  four  hundred  years  later 
Avianus  mentions  his  five  books  of  fables,'  and  about 
this  time  some  of  them  were  turned  into  prose  and 
included  in  a  collection  of  fables  that  bears  the  name 
of  Aesop,  though  often  called  Romulus  from  an  intro- 
ductory letter  which  it  contains,  in  which  that  monarch 
dedicates  his  '  translation  from  the  Greek  '  to  his  son — 
Tiberinus !  This  collection,  which  is  still  extant, 
had  much  influence  upon  later  fabulists,  and  seems 
for  long  to  have  superseded  that  of  Phaedrus,  which 
though  known,  as  I  had  occasion  to  remark  above, 
to  Perotti,  was  not  printed  until  1576.  Nearly  a 
hundred  years  after  La  Fontaine,  whose  use  of  our 
author  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  fables  proper, 
Lessing  included  in  his  own  fables  some  new  versions 
of  several  Phaedrian  ones,  criticized  in  an  essay 
some  of  the  poet's  weaknesses,  and  cherished  hopes, 
not  destined  to  be  fulfilled,  of  some  day  editing  him. 


§  2.  The    Idyll 

The  seven  eclogues  of  Titus  Calpurnius  Siculus, 
with  their  allusions  to  a  young,  beautiful,  eloquent 
ruler,  a  member  of  the  Julian  house,*  to  a  comet  that 

*  Consol  ad  Polyb.  8.  3  Aesopeos  logos,  intempiatum  Romanis 
ingeniis  opus.  For  a  discussion  of  the  questions  raised  by  this 
passaf^e,  see  J.  P.  Postgate,  Class.  Rev.  19 19,  pp.  19  sqq. 

*  Mart.  3.  20.  5  improbi  iocos  Phaedri. 

'  In  his  introductory  letter  to  Theodosius. 

*  I.  44  iuuenemque  beata  sequuntur\saecula  maternis  causam  qui 
uicit  lulis,  7.  82  conspeximus  ipsum\longiHs  ac,  nisi  me  uisus  decepit, 
in  uno\et  Mariis  uultus  et  Apollinis  esse  putatur. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE      91 

announces  an  age  of  gold/  and  to  magnificent  games,* 
must  belong  to  the  early  years  of  Nero's  reign.  The 
Silver  tendency  to  point  and  epigram  is  certainly  not 
very  conspicuous  in  them,  but  one  could  hardly  ask 
for  a  better  example  of  the  verse  that  Persius  pilloried, 
the  verse  of  the  armchair,  elegant  and  polished,  but 
devoid  of  all  vigour  and  originaUty.  Of  the  author 
we  know  nothing.  It  seems  likely  that  his  Corydon's 
debt  to  the  powerful  Meliboeus  ^  is,  like  that  of  Virgil's 
Tityrus,  one  which  the  poet  himself  seeks  to  acknow- 
ledge ;  but  to  identify  the  patron  with  Seneca  or 
Calpurnius  Piso  is  sheer  caprice. 

One  or  two  passages  echo  Theocritus  himself,  but 
the  general  atmosphere  is  that  of  Virgil's  Bucolics. 
Most  of  the  names  come  thence,  but  the  direct  imitation 
of  Virgil,  which  extends  to  the  Georgics,  is  not  very 
frequent  or  close.  In  the  first  poem  two  shepherds 
find  carved  on  a  tree  a  prophecy  of  the  coming  of  a 
new  age  of  gold  :  the  author  is  supposed  to  be  Faunus, 
but  he  has  evidently  read  the  famous  Pollio  eclogue. 
Next  comes  a  singing  match,  in  which  a  shepherd 
and  a  gardener  sing  in  alternate  four-line  stanzas 
the  praises  first  of  their  respective  pursuits,  then  of 
their  common  mistress.  Two  lines  in  which  Virgil 
has  described  the  effect  of  the  minstrelsy  of  Damon 
and  Alphesiboeus  upon  lynxes  and  rivers  are  here 
expanded  into  eleven.  In  Eclogue  Three,  Lycidas 
recounts  to  lollas  his  estrangement  from  a  mistress 
whom  he  has  caught  practising  music  with  a  rival. 
Counselled  to  open  negotiations,  he  dictates  a  letter, 
which  his  friend  is  to  deliver  : 

^  Compare  i.  78  with  i.  33  sqq.     The  comet  is  that  of  a.d.  54. 

*  Eel.  7  passim.  They  are  those  of  Suet.  Ner.  12  :  cp.  Tac. 
Ann.  13.  31  (a.d.  57). 

*  4.  31  sqq.  :  see  translation  on  p.  93. 


92      SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Phyllis,  to  thee  wan  Lycidas  this  prayer 

Sends  writ  in  verse,  the  which  in  dark  despair 

He  cons,  as  all  the  bitter  night  he  hes. 

Searing  with  tears  and  wakefulness  his  eyes. 

The  thrush,  when  stripped  and  bare  the  ohve's  seen, 

The  hare,  when  now  the  last  fall'n  grape  they  glean — 

They  waste  not,  as  I,  Lycidas,  must  pine 

Roaming  alone,  bereft  of  Phylhs  mine. 

Ah  me  !    From  thee  away,  my  hUes  seem 

All  blackened,  no  more  fresh  and  clear  the  stream  ; 

Wine  in  the  cup  turns  sour.     But  cam'st  thou  here, 

Lihes  were  white,  the  streamlet  fresh  and  clear. 

Wine  mellow  in  the  cup.     I  am  the  same 

Whose  singing  thy  delight  thou  didst  proclaim. 

Whom  thou  wouldst  fondly  kiss,  and  bold  invade 

The  lips  that  o'er  the  Pan-pipe  busy  strayed. 

And  canst  thou  now  in  Mopsus'  husky  voice 

And  artless  song  and  grating  flute  rejoice  ?  ^ 

Some  touches  remind  us  of  Virgil's  eighth  eclogue, 

but  the  quarrel  is  of  course  from  Theocritus.     In  the 

fourth  and  longest  piece  Corydon  acquaints  Meliboeus 

with   his   desire  to  sing   the  emperor's  praises ;    his 

patron,  who  thinks  him  over-bold,  learns  with  surprise 

that  the  shepherd's  brother  Amyntas  cherishes  the 

same  hopes. 

And  can  it  be  no  check  from  you  he  finds 
Whene'er  with  fragrant  wax  the  reeds  he  binds  ? 
Oft,  when  he  tried  his  hemlock  thin  to  sound. 
You  cut  him  short  and  like  a  father  frowned. 
Full  often,  Corydon,  I  've  heard  you  say 
'  Best  break  your  pipes  :    the  Muses  do  not  pay. 
My  son,  so  rather,  courting  them  no  more. 
Of  cornels  red  and  acorns  make  a  store. 
Bring  herds  of  kine  to  fill  the  foaming  pail 
And  cry  the  milk  o'er  all  the  town  for  sale. 
What  help  'gainst  hunger  can  your  piping  bring  ? 
My  songs,  at  least,  there  's  none  I  know  will  sing — 
Save  windy  echoes  from  the  crags  that  ring.' 
Corydon.    I  said  so,  Mehboeus,  once,  I  own  ; 

But    times    are    changed,    and    Heaven 's    more 
gracious  grown. 

1  3.  45-60. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE      93 

Hope  smiles  now  on  me,  and  I  need  not  seek 
Hedge  berries  wild  or  with  green  mallows  eke 
Mine  hunger  out.     And  this  to  thee  I  owe  : 
Bread  on  my  board  I  thro'  thy  bounty  know. 
There  's  not  a  plaintive  note  can  find  a  place 
In  all  my  songs — thro'  Meliboeus'  grace  ; 
Through  thee  it  is  that  I  so  amply  dine, 
And  may  thereafter  at  my  ease  rechne 
In  shady  covert,  and  the  groves  am  free 
To  tread  where  Amaryllis  loves  to  be.^ 

Will  Ills  patron  judge  a  sample  of  what  he  hopes  to 
write  ?  He  will,  and,  Amyntas  arriving  at  this 
opportune  moment,  the  brothers  sing,  in  alternate 
five-line  stanzas,  a  panegyric  with  which  Meliboeus 
declares  himself  much  impressed.  In  the  fifth  eclogue 
old  Micon,  resigning  his  sheep  and  goats  to  young 
Canthus,  gives  him  advice  as  to  their  care.  Virgil's 
remarks  on  the  subject  are  not  forgotten,  but  the 
account  of  the  shearing  ^  is  not  from  the  third  Georgic, 
and  is  much  fuller  than  anything  that  Varro  and 
Columella  say  on  the  matter.  In  Eclogue  Six  stakes 
are  laid  and  a  judge  chosen  for  a  singing  match,  but 
the  competitors  begin  to  abuse  each  other  with  such 
vigour  that  the  umpire  begs  to  be  excused.  In  the 
last  poem  a  shepherd,  fresh  returned  from  Rome, 
describes  the  amphitheatre  and  the  marvels  that  he 
has  witnessed  therein.  The  flattery  of  the  emperor 
at  the  close  ends  so  abruptly  that  it  seems  almost 
certain  that  some  lines  have  been  lost. 

There  seems  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  Eclogue  One 
in  the  famous  Vigil  of  Venus  :  it  can  hardly  be  by 
mere  coincidence  that  in  both  poems  the  cattle 
'  extend  their  sides,'  as  Parnell  translates  in  his  version 
of  the  later  poem,  beneath  the  genista  tree.^    Towards 

*  4.  19-38.  *  See  11.  66  sqq. 

*  Ed.  I.  5  molle  sub  hirsuta  latus  explicuere  genesta,  Peruigil.  8i 
ecce  iam  sublet  genestas  explicant  tauri  latus. 


94     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

the  end  of  the  third  century  Nemesianus  of  Carthage 
in  his  four  eclogues  borrows  freely,  sometimes  whole 
lines,  from  Calpurnius  :  the  inclusion  of  both  poets 
in  the  same  MS.  led  to  the  ascription  of  all  eleven 
pieces  to  Calpurnius  alone,  and  traces  of  this  mistake 
have  survived  until  very  recent  times.  The  Carolingian 
Modoin  ^  uses  Calpurnius  in  an  eclogue  of  his  own, 
Shakespeare's  Mantuan  and  Sannazaro  know  him, 
and  Montaigne  makes  good  use  of  Eclogue  Seven  in 
his  discursive  chapter  on  coaches. 

Calpurnius  has  been  suggested  as  author  for  a 
panegyric  of  Piso  in  261  hexameters  first  published 
in  1527  from  a  now  lost  MS.,  which  ascribed  it  to 
Virgil. 2  One  of  the  extant  MSS.,  which  contain  only 
excerpts,  assigns  it  to  Lucan,  and  certainly  the  mono- 
tony of  the  verse  and  the  resemblance  between  the 
personality  of  the  hero  and  that  of  the  conspirator 
Piso — both,  for  instance,  are  great  draught  players  ^ — 
are  in  favour  of  the  later  period.  A  two-line  passage 
that  reads  very  like  an  echo  of  one  in  the  fourth 
eclogue  of  Calpurnius  ^  is  really  the  only  connecting 
link  between  that  poet  and  the  panegyric,  an  in- 
dustrious, uninspired  piece  of  work  whose  only  interest 
lies  in  its  detailed  allusion  to  the  ancient  game  of 
latruncuU. 

To  Nero's  time  no  doubt  belong  also  two  eclogues 
preserved  in  a  tenth  -  century  Einsiedeln  MS.  first 
published  in  1869.^  Both  praise  the  emperor's  skill 
with  the  harp,  and  the  first,  which  describes  a  singing 

^  Manilius,  Gesch.  der  lat.  Lit.  des  Mittelalters,  p.  550. 
^  It  is  edited  in  Baehrens'  Poetae  Latini  Minores,  vol.  i,  pp.  225 
sqq. 

*  Cp.  Pan.  190  sqq.  with  the  scholiast  on  Juv.  5.  109  in  latrun- 
culonim  lusu  tarn  perfedus  et  callidus  et  ad  ewn  hidentem  concur reretur. 

*  LI.  246,  247  ;   Calp.  4.  152,  153. 

''  They  are  edited  in  Baehrens  I.e.,  vol.  3,  pp.  63  sqq. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE      95 

match  (without  however  mention  of  the  award), 
refers  to  a  composition  of  his  upon  the  fall  of  Troy. 
The  second  begins  with  lively  dialogue — 

Cor  YD  ON.    Why,  Mystes,  dumb  ? 

Mystes.  My  joy  's  o'ercast  with  care 

Feasts  cannot  banish  ;  nay,  it  waxes  there. 

Amidst  the  cups,  loves  there  to  He  recUned. 
CoRYDON.    I  take  you  not. 

Mystes.  Nor  speak  I  all  my  mind. 

CoRYDON.    A  wolf 's  waylaid  your  flock  ? 
Mystes.  I  've  dogs  that  keep 

Good  watch,  and  fear  no  foe. 
CoRYDON.  E'en  such  may  sleep. 

Mystes.       'Tis  deeper  down  :  the  mark  you  're  all  beside. 
CoRYDON.    Yet  without  wind  is  seldom  rough  the  tide. 
Mystes.       You  'd  never  guess  it :    plenty  is  my  bane. 
CoRYDON.    Ah,  luxury  and  ease  must  still  complain  ! 
Mystes.       Well  if  you  wish  to  hear  by  what  I  'm  bored 

Yon  spreading  boughs  a  palsied  shade  afford. 
CoRYDON.    The  elm  ?     And  see,  the  grass  invites  repose 

[They  seat  themselves.) 

Come  now,  the  cause  for  thy  reserve  disclose. 

It  turns  out  to  be  the  return  of  the  Golden  Age  that 
has  obsessed  the  shepherd's  mind  !  The  suggestion 
that  the  poems  are  respectively  the  Panegyric  of  Nero 
and  the  Saturnalia,  which  we  know  to  have  been 
composed  by  Lucan/  is  ingenious  and  nothing  more. 
Lucan's  Saturnalia  was  almost  certainly  connected 
with  the  great  December  carnival,  not  a  description 
of  an  age  that  was  to  resemble  the  golden  one  in  which 
Saturn  was  king ;  as  for  panegyrics  of  Nero,  the 
beginning  of  his  reign  must  have  inspired  scores  of 
them. 

§  3.  Lyrical  and  Amatory  Poetry 
Of   lyric   poets   no   longer   alive,    QuintiUan   holds 

1  See  note  on  p.  19. 


96     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Caesius  Bassus,  the  friend  of  Persius,  the  only  one 
worth  reading  after  Horace.^  We  have  still,  in 
mutilated  condition,  a  treatise  on  nietre  which  seems 
to  have  been  his  work,  but  neither  his  verses  nor  those 
of  any  other  lyric  poet  belonging  to  our  period  have 
come  down  to  us.  Quintilian  holds  him  inferior 
to  some  writers  who  were  still  alive  :  one  rather 
doubts  if  he  reckoned  among  these  the  Passennus 
Paullus  whom  the  younger  PUny  mentions  as  a  writer 
of  Horatian  odes,^  or  Vestricius  Spurinna,  whose 
'  learned  '  odes  the  same  Pliny  praises  so  warmly  ^ 
that  Caspar  Barth  was  impelled  to  try  and  pass  off 
as  his  work  four  pieces  for  which  he  was  himself 
solely  responsible.  Passennus,  according  to  Phny,* 
wrote  also  Propertian  elegies  which  have  vanished 
as  completely  as  his  odes,  as  completely  as  those  of 
Pliny  himself,  who  found  reeling  them  off  mere  cliild's 
play,  when  one  had  nothing  better  to  do,^  and  Stella, 
the  patron  of  Martial  and  Statins.^  From  the  pen 
of  Sulpicia,  whom  Martial  mentions  as  authoress  of 
amatory  poetry,  in  which  she  chose  for  theme  the,  for 
ancient  amorists  at  any  rate,  very  unorthodox  one 
of  conjugal  f  eh  city,  the  schohast  on  Juvenal  has 
preserved  two  iambics.' 


1  lo.  I.  96.  si  quern  adicere  (Horatio)  uelis,  is  erit  Caesius  Bassus 
.  .  .  sed  eum  longe  praecedunt  ingenia  uiuentium.  Persius'  sixth 
satire  is  addressed  to  him,  and  the  schoUast  there  says  that  he  perished 
in  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius. 

^  Ep.  9.  22.  2.  '  Ep.  3.  I.  7. 

*  Ep.  6.  15.  I  ;    9.  22.  I,  2.  *  Ep.  7.  4.  2-7. 

*  Mart.  4.  6.  4,  5  ;   7.  14.  5  ;   Stat.  Silu.  i.  2.  197,  252  sqq. 

'  Mart.  10.  35  and  38,  schohast  on  Juv.  6.  537.  The  seventy 
hexameters  discovered  at  Bobbio  in  1493  and  representing  the 
lamentations  of  a  Sulpicia  (clearly  intended  for  Martial's  poetess) 
over  the  decay  of  culture  under  the  reigning  emperor  are  almost 
certainly  a  late  concoction. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE     97 


§  4.  Translations 

Germanicus,  the  nephew  of  Tiberius,  must  originally 
have  borne  the  Claudian  name,  and  to  him  is  generally 
ascribed  a  hexameter  version  of  Aratus'  astronomical 
poem,  the  Phaenomena,  which  bears  the  name  of 
Claudius  Caesar.  The  death  of  Augustus  is  implied 
in  one  passage  ;  ^  the  emperor  invoked  as  Father 
will  be  Tiberius,  whose  adopted  son  Germanicus  was. 
That  he  did  translate  the  Phaenomena  we  learn  from 
Lactantius  :  ^  Cicero  had  done  the  same  in  his  youth. 
The  later  version  is  the  more  independent,  and  contains 
several  passages,  varying  in  length  from  fifteen  to  a 
hundred  and  sixty-three  lines,  for  which  the  original 
contains  no  equivalent.  The  other  part  of  the  work 
is  of  interest  mainly  as  a  concrete  example  of  the  way 
the  translation  theories  so  carefully  taught  in  the 
schools  of  rhetoric  were  put  into  actual  practice. 
Priscian  quotes  '  Caesar  in  Aratus ; '  ^  the  best  MSS, 
date  from  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries. 

To  our  period  also  is  generally  ascribed  the  abridged 
Iliad,  in  1070  hexameters,  which  the  best  MSS., 
naming  no  author,  style  The  Book  of  Horner.^  The 
warmth  of  a  reference  to  the  Juhan  house  ^  suggests 
a  date  anterior  to  the  death  of  Nero,  and  the  Latinity 
is  tolerable  enough.  The  arrangement  is  very  uneven, 
a  quarter  of  the  work  being  devoted  to  the  summary 

1  Ll.  558  sqq.  :  hie  Augusie  tuum  genitali  corpore  numen  \  attonitas 
inter  gentes  patriamque  pauentem  \  in  caelum  tulit  et  maternis  astris. 
The  poem  is  printed  in  Baehrens,  I.e.,  vol.  i,  pp.  148  sqq. 

2  Div.  Inst.  5.  5.  4. 

'  De  Fig.  32  {Gramm.  Laf.  3,  p.  417)- 

*  It  is  edited  in  Baehrens,  I.e.,  vol.  3,  pp.  7  sqq. 

^  Ll.  899  sqq.  :  quern  {Aenean)  nisi  seruasset  magnarum  rector 
aquarum  \  ut  profugus  laetis  Troiam  repararet  in  ariiis  \  augnstumqite 
genus  Claris  submitteret  astris  |  non  carae  gentis  nobis  mansisset  origo. 

G 


98     SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

of  the  first  two  books,  more  than  half  of  it  to  that  of 
the    first    five.     Sometimes    entirely    new    matter    is 
introduced,  but  the  general  effect  is  that  of  a  summary 
by  a  third-rate  author  of  his  recollections  of  the  Iliad. 
To   the   book's   intrinsic   dullness   modern   ingenuity 
has  imparted  a  modicum  of  interest  by  the  attempt 
to  discover  in  the  initial  letters  of  certain  fines  an 
acrostic  reveafing,  in  accordance  with  a  practice  by 
no  means  rare  in  later  verse,  the  name  of  the  author. 
If  only  the  seventh  line  began  with  U,  not  P,  and  if 
the  last  line  but  five  began  with  R,  not  Q,  then  the 
initials  of  the  first  eight  lines  would  make  Italicus, 
and  those  of  the  last  eight  scripsit—'  Italicus  wrote 
it !  '     And  in  the  last  line  but  five  it  is  possible,  by  a 
simple  transposition  which  does  no  violence  to  the 
rules  of  Latin  order  or  hexameter  verse,  to  get  the 
initial  desired.     Unfortunately  —  or  fortunately  —  no 
plausible  means  for  exorcizing  protulerant  from   the 
beginning  of  the  other  fine  has  been  discovered.     One 
Renaissance  MS.  actually  ascribes  the  work  to  Bebius 
Itaficus,    but    Renaissance    scholars    were    quite    as 
capable  of  noticing  the  traces  of  an  acrostic  as  we 
moderns,   and  Bebius  is  probably  only  a  corruption 
for  Silius,  itself  a  mere  guess  by  some  one  whom  the 
name  ItaUcus  reminded  of  the  poet  of  the  Punica — 
whose  riper  work  is  certainly  not  so  brilliant  that  we 
need  judge  his  greener  years  incapable  of  producing 
the  abridgment. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  Latin  Iliad,  as  it  seems 
usually  to  have  been  called,  had  in  the  general 
ignorance  of  Greek  to  do  much  duty  in  place  of  the 
original.  A  tenth-century  epic  on  the  Emperor 
Berengar  makes  considerable  use  of  it.  How,  from 
the  twelfth  century   onwards,   it   came  to  bear  the 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE      99 

name   of   Pindar  or  even   Thehan  Pindar,   it  seems 
impossible  to  explain, 

§  5.   Vers  de  Societe 
I.  The  Epigram 

In  various  libraries,  mainly  in  Paris  and  at  Leyden, 
are  preserved  MSS.  which  contain  miscellaneous  col- 
lections of  Latin  verse,  and  in  these,  and  in  a  printed 
book  of  '  Epigrams  hitherto  unpublished '  brought 
out  by  the  Frenchman  Binet  in  1579,  we  find  a  number 
of  poems, ^  written  for  the  most  part  in  elegiac  verse 
(though  hendecasyllables  occur),  that  are  simply 
brief  records  of  passing  impressions  or  emotions  and 
personal  experiences,  comparable  on  the  one  hand 
with  the  sonnets  of  modern  times,  on  the  other  with 
the  epigrams  of  the  Greek  Anthology.  A  few  are 
ascribed  by  good  MSS.  to  Seneca  and  Petronius, 
three  to  the  former,  four  to  the  latter,  and  two  of  these 
last  actually  occur  in  our  fragments  of  the  Satire.'^ 
Two  more  contain  passages  which  are  quoted  by 
Fulgentius  in  the  sixth  century  as  the  work  of  Petronius. 
And  Binet  implies  distinctly  that  the  first  ten  of  his 
pieces  were  ascribed  to  the  same  writer  by  the  MS. 
from  which  he  took  them.  That  is  unfortunately 
lost,  but  here  again,  a  passage  out  of  one  of  the  ten 
pieces  is  cited  as  Petronian  by  Fulgentius.  Two 
poems,  Binet  tells  us,  were  labelled  as  the  work  of 
Germanicus  Caesar,  one  as  that  of  Caecilius  Plinius 
Secundus.^    And  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  very 

^  They  are  edited  in  Baehrens,  I.e.  vol.  4,  and  Riese,  Anthologia 
Latina. 

■  §§  14,  83- 

^  The  younger  PUny  did  compose  poetry  of  this  kind  :  see  p.  246. 
His  friends  too  dash  off  things  that  remind  him  of  Calvus  and 
Catullus:  see  Ep.  i.  iG.  5,  4.  27.  4  (where  a  pitiable  specimen  is 
preserved). 


100    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

many  of  these  poems,  with  their  elegant  Latin,  polished 
verse,  and,  alas !  trifling  contents,  belong  to  our 
period.  Especially  noticeable  is  a  series  commemorat- 
ing the  victories  of  Claudius  in  Britain.^  Several 
contain  references  that  make  it  practically  certain 
that  they  are  the  work  of  Seneca.^  Others  are 
thoroughly  Petronian  in  maimer. 

But,  whoever  they  were,  the  writers  of  these  pieces 
made  Uttle  or  no  attempt  to  achieve  a  pointed  ending, 
and  herein  present  a  marked  contrast  to  the  epigram- 
matist to  whom  most  of  this  section  must  be  devoted. 
Marcus  Valerius  Martiahs  was  bom  at  Bilbihs  in  Spain, 
somewhere  about  a.d.  40.-  Of  Ms  early  days  we 
know  nothing,  httle  of  the  first  twenty  years  of  hfe 
in  Rome  that  began  in  64.^  His  countrymen  the 
Senecas  seem  to  have  given  him  some  assistance,^ 
but  on  their  fall  in  65  he  must  have  had  to  turn  else- 
where for  patronage.  Literature  was  not  yet  a 
profession,  and  the  poor  writer  could  exist  at  Rome 
only  as  a  cUent.  The  clientship  of  the  Empire,  a  very 
different  thing  from  that  of  the  best  days  of  the 
Republic,  stood  rooted  in  two  of  the  meanest  of  human 
weaknesses,  the  reluctance  of  men  lacking  a  com- 
petence of  their  own  to  support  themselves  by  taking 
up  a  trade  or  a  profession,  and  the  desire  of  the  wealthy 

1  Baehrens,  I.e.  Nos.  29-36. 

*  Plin.  Ep.  5.  3.  5  definitely  states  that  Seneca  did  write  such  verse. 

*  His  birthplace  is  plainly  stated  in  i.  61.  11,  12  te,  Liciniane, 
gloriaUtur  nostra  \  nee  me  tacehit  Bilbilis.  But  although  we  know 
from  10.  24.  1  (natales  miki  Martiae  Kalendae)  that  his  birthday 
was  March  ist,  the  year  has  to  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  he  is 
there  fiftv -seven  years  old,  and  there  is  ground  for  beUeving  Book 
•  ■r^  -       —     y^  ->  written  a.d.  95-98. 

Ten  to  have  oeei,       -      ^^^  ^^  return  he  remarks  that  he  has  been 

*  Writing  on  the  eve^^^.  ^^^  ^^^^  ^  quattuor  accessit  tficesima 
away  for  thirty-lour  ye  ^^gygy^ yj^rUca  Itba  datisimoenia  dum  coltmus 
messibus  aetas  \  ut  sine  me  «.  ' 

dominae  pulcherrtma  Rcjmae. 

*  Cp.  4.  40.  2,  12.  36.  b. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    loi 

to  surround  themselves  with  a  numerous  train  of 
inexpensive  dependants.  The  early  appearance  in 
the  patron's  reception-room,  the  attendance  in  the 
procession  which  escorted  him  to  and  from  the  Forum 
and  other  pubhc  resorts  were  burdens,  but  they 
were  burdens  that  could  occasionally  be  shirked, 
and  about  all  the  other  duties  involved  there  hung 
that  atmospliere  of  vagueness  and  desultoriness  in 
which  alone  the  loafer  of  all  ages  finds  himself  able 
to  breathe  freely.  Martial,  who  had  more  than 
most  of  these  men  to  offer,  was  taken  up  by  men 
of  real  distinction,  such  as  the  younger  Phny  and  his 
enemy  Regulus,  Silius  Itahcus  and  Arruntius  Stella, 
imperial  ministers  like  Sextus,  keeper  of  the  library, 
and  the  chamberlain  Parthenius,  ladies  like  Lucan's 
widow  Folia. ^  Among  his  friends  were  Quintilian 
and  Juvenal,  another  Martial,  and  the  centurion 
Pudens,  to  whose  marriage  with  the  fair  Briton  Claudia 
Peregrina  he  devotes  an  epigram. ^  The  first  work 
of  Martial's  that  has  reached  us  is  a  volume  of  short 
poems  on  games  with  which  Titus  opened  the  Colosseum 
in  A.D.  80;^  the  second,  a  collection  of  some  three 
hundred  and  fifty  couplets  such  as  might  accompany 
the  presents  which  were  sent  to  friends  or  given  to  guests 
during  the  Saturn  festival.  The  two  classes,  Xenia 
(gifts  for  friends)  and  Apophoreta  (gifts  to  be  taken  away 
with  you),  had  each  a  book  to  itself  :  ''   this  production 

^  Sextus  is  addressed  in  5.  5,  whilst  5.  6  and  7.  21  are  intended 
respectively  for  Parthenius  and  Polla.  For  references  to  the  other 
four  see  pp.  95,  112,  24,  83. 

"  To  Quintilian  is  addressed  2.  90,  to  Juvenal  the  epigrams 
mentioned  in  a  note  on  p.  74.  For  Julius  Martial  sec  pp.  114,  116, 
for  Pudens  4.  13. 

'  The  liber  spectaculorum  of  the  editions. 

*  Books  Thirteen  and  Fourteen  in  the  editions.  The  victories 
over  the  Chatii,  which  brought  Domitian  the  title  Gertnanicus 
(about  A.D.  84),  :;cem  still  recent  :   cp.  14.  20,  170. 


102    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

seems  to  have  been  published  about  84.  The  first 
book  of  the  epigrams  proper  seems  to  have  appeared 
in  85/86,  others  following  at  intervals  of  about  a 
year,  until  96,  when  they  numbered  eleven.^  From 
these  we  learn  something  of  Martial's  life  and  fortunes, 
that  he  has  been  a  mihtary  tribune  and  so  enjoys 
equestrian  rank,  lives  at  first  at  Rome  in  lodgings 
'  up  three  long  flights  of  stairs,'  removes  for  a  space 
to  Northern  Italy,  whence  he  returns  to  become 
presently  the  possessor  of  a  country  cottage,  a  town 
house,  and  a  carriage. 2  No  doubt  he  spent  every 
penny  he  got ;  Pliny  paid  his  passage  money  when  in 
98  he  returned  to  Bilbihs.^  There  for  some  time  he 
was  quite  content  to  enjoy  the  leisure  and  ease  for 
which  he  had  so  often  sighed  at  Rome,  but  somewhere 
about  102  we  find  him  producing  a  twelfth  book  of 
epigrams.  He  seems  to  have  died  about  104 ;  at 
least  that  is  the  year  to  which  a  letter  wherein  PHny 
mentions  the  news  of  his  death  as  recent  seems  to  be 
generally  assigned.* 

The  book  on  the  games  reminds  one  of  the  ingenuity 
of  modern  advertisers.  Each  '  turn  '  is  described  as 
a  masterpiece,  and  no  opportunity  missed  for  cheap 
sentiment  or  crude  flattery.  A  tame  tiger  kills  a  lion  : 
'  it  never  did  such  a  thing  in  its  native  wilds  :  we 
men  have  taught  it  ferocity  '  ;  a  hon  is  condemned 
to  death  for  biting  its  trainer  :  '  our  ruler  expects 
even  beasts  to  be  humane.'  ^  The  Saturnaha  couplets 
have  for  us  much  of  the  interest  that  a  sole  surviving 

1  See  Friedlaender,  Sittengesch.  Roms,  E.T.,  vol.  4,  pp.  298  sqq. 
Book  Ten  of  our  MSS.  is  however  a  second  edition,  published  under 
Trajan  :   see  lo.  7.  and  34. 

*  3- 95- 9,  10;   I.  117.  7;  3.  I.  and  4;  9.  18.  2  and 97.  7,  8;  12.24. 
'  Plin.  Ep.  3.  21.  2  proseciitus  eram  uiatico  secedentem. 

*  3.  21  :   see  p.  28^.  s  js.  5,  6  ;    10.  6. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    103 

copy  of  a  Stores  Price  List  of  to-day  might  be  expected 
to  have  for  Macaulay's  New  Zealander.  Objects 
so  modern  as  sunbonnets,  bells,  clothes-brushes,  and 
bird  cages  figure  in  them.^  The  Apophoreta  are 
arranged  in  pairs  in  which  an  article  that  suits  a 
heavy  purse  is  followed  by  another  that  suits  a  light 
one.^ 

To  the  student  of  literature,  however,  Martial  is 
represented  by  his  epigrams.  The  pointed  tendency 
which  they  exhibit  is  discernible,  no  doubt,  in  later 
Greek  epigram  :  the  author  himself,  however,  names 
only  Roman  models — Catullus,  Marsus,  and  Pedo.' 
How  much  he  owed  to  the  two  Augustans  it  is  im- 
possible to  say,  as  we  have  none  of  their  epigrams  : 
the  borrowings  from  the  Greeks  and  Catullus  are  a 
mere  drop  in  the  ocean  of  his  ingenuity.  In  many 
cases  one  feels  that  the  nominal  creditor  is  in  equity 
the  debtor,  so  much  has  his  phrase  or  turn  gained  by 
its  new  surroundings.  There  are  in  all  nearly  1200 
epigrams,  most  of  them  quite  short,  couplets  and 
quadruplets  predominating,  though  some  forty  attain 
a  length  of  twenty  lines  or  more.  The  elegiac  metre 
predominates,  about  20  per  cent,  are  in  hendeca- 
syllables,  about  70  in  the  '  limping  '  iambic  that  ends 
with  a  spondee  :  one  or  two  other  metres  are  re- 
presented. Some  of  the  poems  conform  to  the  original 
type  of  the  genus,  might  serve,  that  is  to  say,  as  in- 
scriptions for  tombs,  busts,  or  other  works  of  art ; 
a  few  are  amphitheatrical,  similar  in  scope  to  those 

1  14.  29  {causia),  163  {tintinnahulutn),  68  (muscarium),  77 
[cauea). 

*  14.  I.  5  diuitis  aliernas  et  pauperis  accipe  sortes. 

3  See  I.  praef.  ;  2.  71.  3,  77.  5;  5.  5.  6;  7.  99.  7;  8.  56.  24;  10. 
78.  16.  The  reference  in  i  praef.  to  Gaetulicus  (presumably  the 
consular  who  conspired  unsuccessfully  against  Caligula  in  39  B.C.) 
hardly  proves  that  Martial  regarded  him  as  one  of  his  models. 


104    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

of  the  book  on  the  games ;  others  are  simply  brief 
contes.  But  the  majority  fall  under  one  of  two  other 
categories,  according  as  they  have  for  subject  or 
bona  fide  addressee  a  friend  or  patron  of  the  writer's 
or  describe,  more  or  less  satirically,  some  character 
or  incident  or  institution  of  the  day.  Not  that  satire 
is  entirely  absent  in  the  first  class,  or  that  many 
pieces  of  the  second  do  not  contain  the  name  of  an 
addressee.  But  on  the  whole,  the  distinction  just 
drawn  will,  I  think,  be  found  to  hold  good.  In  the 
second  class,  at  any  rate,  of  the  exceptions  at  which 
I  have  hinted,  the  connexion  of  addressee  and  poem  is 
often  very  loose,  residing  indeed  in  some  cases  simply 
in  the  suitableness  of  the  name  to  the  particular 
metre  involved. 

Martial's  Muse,  he  tells  us,  prompted  the  com- 
position of  works  '  seasoned  with  true  Roman  wit, 
in  which  Life  should  read  and  recognize  the  picture 
of  its  own  manners  and  customs.'  ^  '  Humanity,' 
he  says  somewhere  else  (Addison  characteristically 
enough  making  the  sentence  serve  as  motto  to  a 
Spectator),  '  Humanity  is  the  predominant  flavour 
of  my  books.'  ^  Many  a  type,  indeed,  and  many 
a  trait  that  we  might  else  have  been  tempted  to  think 
peculiarly  modern  have  they  handed  down  to  us. 
The  man  who  will  beg  or  borrow,  but  never  buy,  an 
author's  works,  the  impressive  person  who  whispers 
everything — even  so  open  a  secret  as  Domitian's 
virtues, — the  dilettante  who  does  everything  smartly 
but  nothing  well,  the  shopper  who  has  the  whole  place 
turned  upside  down  and  then  goes  off  with  a  couple 
of  cheap  tumblers,  the  old  butler  who  wants  to  keep 

^  8.  3.  19  iu  Romanos  lepido  sale  tivgiie  lihellos  :\adgnoscat  mores 
Vita  legatqite  snos.  '  10.  4.  10  hominem  pagina  nostra  sapit. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    105 

young  master  under  his  thumb  long  after  he  has 
reached  man's  estate,  the  barber  under  whose  razor 
you  bleed  like  a  self-slashing  priest  of  Cybele,  the 
collector  who  makes  good  wines  mouldy  by  talking 
shop  over  them,  the  man  who,  because  he  is  in 
general  demand,  thinks  people  love  him,  when  they 
only  find  him  amusing  '  ^ — these  are  certainly  with 
us  still,  even  if  we  have  lost  the  ladies  who  claim  the 
right  to  call  their  wigs  their  own  hair  (have  they  not 
paid  for  it  ?),  or,  being  seen  only  with  women  older  or 
plainer  than  themselves,  are  suspected  of  selecting 
foils  for  their  own  charms,  or  vow  that  if  they  lost 
their  pearls  life  would  become  unendurable.  ^  Who 
cannot  sympathize  with  the  complaint  that  Novius, 
who  lives  so  near,  is  the  last  person  Martial  ever  sees, 
understand  the  allusion  to  twenty-year-old  lawsuits 
and  country  houses  where  the  rural  produce  comes 
from  town,  recognize  the  shops  where  the  overflow 
of  the  stock  on  to  the  pavement  drives  pedestrians 
into  the  mire,  the  desirable  residence  which  the  agent 
sets  off  by  filling  it  with  choice  furniture,  not  included 
in  the  terms  of  sale  ?  ^  Less  obtrusively  modern  is 
the  captator,  courting  childless  millionaires  whose 
heir  he  hopes  to  become — 

You  know  he  's  a  toady,  you  know  he  loves  pelf. 

And  you  know  what  it  is  he  would  hail  as  good  news, 
Yet,  poor  fool  that  you  are,  make  him  heir  to  yourself 

And  would  have  him  (what  lunacy  !)  stand  in  your  shoes. 
'  But  the  presents  he  gave  me  ?  '    'Twas  only  his  bait. 

Can  the  angler  be  dear  to  the  fish  he  has  caught  ? 
When  you  die,  d'  ye  suppose  he  '11  be  moved  at  your  fate  ? 

If  you  want  him  to  mourn,  you  had  best  leave  him  nought ;  * 

1  I.  117  (op.  4.  72)  ;    I.  89.  6;    2.  7.  7  ;    9-  59  ;    n-  391    n-  84  ; 
8.  6;    7.  76.  2  6.  12  ;   8.  79;   8.  81. 

»  I.  86  ;   7.  65.  I  ;   3.  47  ;   7.  61  ;    12.  66. 
*  6.  63. 


io6    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

the  laudicenus,  or  '  smell-feast '  as  Davies  calls  him, 
who  cadges  for  invitations  by  means  of  fulsome  flattery, 
a  melancholy  object  as  evening  shades  come  on  and 
find  him  unattached — 

See  Selius  there,  a  cloud  upon  his  face. 

The  Arcade 's  deserted  :    still  he  haunts  the  place. 

His  listless  look  hints  at  distress  profound, 

His  nose  uncomely  all  but  scrapes  the  ground.  .  .  . 

'Tis  not  that  friend  or  brother 's  turned  to  dust. 

Both  sons  are  well,  and  long  will  be,  I  trust. 

His  wife 's  all  right,  safe  too  her  dowry  cash. 

Tenants  and  managers — ^they  've  not  gone  smash. 

His  servants — none  of  them  have  run  away. 

What  is  it,  then  ?    He  dines  at  home  to-day ;  ^ 

the  recitator  who  bores  every  one  with  the  reading 
of  his  literary  compositions,  even  abusing  the  position 
of  host  for  this  purpose,  until  his  dinner-guests  flee, 
as  the  sun  of  mythology  fled  before  the  scarcely  more 
unnatural  banquet  of  Thyestes.^  It  was  not  the 
only  way  hosts  offended.  There  were  men  who  had 
magnificent  hothouses,  but  put  you  to  sleep  in  draughty 
attics  : 

Lest  your  fruit  trees  in  winter  turn  black 
Or  their  delicate  buds  the  wind  bite, 

The  chill  breezes  with  glass  you  drive  back, 
That  admits  all  the  sunshine  and  light. 

In  garret  whose  window  won't  close, 
Where  old  Boreas  himself  couldn't  rest, 

You  expect  an  old  friend  to  repose. 

To  your  trees  would  I  sooner  be  guest.* 

Other  interesting  figures  are  the  thieving  doctor,  who, 

detected,  while  he  stole 
A  patient's  favourite  drinking  bowl, 
Had  still  his  answer  pat  enough  : 
'  You  fool !   You  shouldn't  touch  the  stuff ; '  * 

'  2.  II.  '3.  45.  3  8.  14.  *  9.  96. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    107 

the  brunette,  who  wished  to  be  bleached  fair  : 

In  Tibur's  sun,  the  nut-brown  maid  was  told, 
Ivory  grows  white  though  yellow  turned  and  old. 
Thither  she  hies  her,  but  ere  long  comes  back 
(So  strong  the  upland  air)  not  blonde,  but  black ;  ^ 

the  auctioneer,  who  is  a  httle  too  clever  : 

'  Now  don't  suppose  (says  he)  the  vendor's  pressed. 
Why,  he  's  got  thousands  out  at  interest. 
What  is  it  then  ?   Slaves,  herds  and  harvest  there 
He  lost,  and  for  the  place  has  ceased  to  care.' 
Who  'd  bid,  that 's  not  on  going  bankrupt  set  ? 
That  fatal  farm — the  vendor  has  it  yet.^ 

Martial's  humour,  varied  as  it  seems  at  first  sight 
to  be,  falls  really  under  a  comparatively  small  number 
of  heads,  or  figures  as  he  himself  would  have  phrased 
it.  The  commonest,  I  suppose,  is  Paradox.  Calenus, 
who  as  a  poor  man  had  always  been  generous,  inherits 
a  fortune,  and  all  his  friends  rejoice — 

But  as  the'  not  a  penny  you  'd  had, 

Nay,  had  lost  an  equivalent  sum. 
Of  starvation  you  're  making  a  fad, 

And  the  meanest  of  men  have  become. 
That  no  more  than  a  few  coppers  spends 

On  choice  banquets  (but  once  a  year  due) 
And  for  us  your  seven  oldest  of  friends 

Scarce  will  part  with  a  counterfeit  sou. 
What,  Calenus,  to  deeds  of  such  merit 

Can  the  proper  thing  be  to  reply  ? 
Oh,  we  hope  ten  times  more  you  '11  inherit : 

Then  you  're  certain  of  hunger  to  die  !  ^ 

Here  is  a  reply  to  an  invitation  : 

You  ask  me  to  dinner  and  say  there  will  be 

Three  hundred  at  table,  all  strangers  to  me. 

And  because  I  refuse  you  're  surprised  and  make  moan. 

Why,  Fabullus,  I  don't  relish  dining  alone.* 

The  whole    point    of    the  protest  against  Postumus' 

1   7.  13.  2  I.  85.  3  sqq.  »   I.  99.  8  sqq.  *  11.  35- 


io8    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

supercilious  politeness  lies  in  the  semblance  of  con- 
tradiction involved  in  the  last  sentence  : 

With  only  half  a  lip  you  kiss, 

And  half  of  that  I  ne'er  should  miss. 

A  greater  boon,  of  worth  untold, 

Wilt  grant  me  ?    That  whole  half  withhold.^ 

Closely  akin  to  this  figure  is  the  Sudden  Surprise  of — 

I  'm  annoyed,  my  Lupercus  :   for  ages  your  friend 

Uninvited  to  dinner  you  've  kept. 
I  shall  take  my  revenge.     You  may  beg,  coax,  and  send — 

'  Well  ?     And  what  will  you  do  ?  '   Why,  accept. - 

or 

It 's  made  you  a  widower  four  times,  so  they  say. 
This  bottle  you  want  me  to  sample  to-day. 
Oh,  I  don't  think  it 's  likely,  I  'm  sure  it 's  a  lie  : 
All  the  same  at  the  moment  I  'm  not  feeling  dry.^ 

Sometimes  the  abrupt  turn  is  in  the  nature  of  an 
aside.  '  My  desire  for  wealth  isn't  based  on  the  ignoble 
motives  of  the  man  in  the  street.  I  don't  wish  to 
buy  estates,  fine  furniture,  pampered  slaves — 

I  swear  that  isn't  what  I  'd  do  with  it. 

What  then  P  oh,  give  't  away — and  build  a  bit !  '  * 

the  mania  for  putting  up  and  enlarging  luxurious 
country  houses  being  so  prevalent  that  Juvenal  uses 
the  word  '  builder  '  as  a  term  of  reproach.  Definition 
is  another  of  Martial's  weapons  : 

Cinna  'gainst  me  (so  'tis  said) 

Verses  doth  endite. 
He  whose  lines  are  never  read 

Can't  be  held  to  write. 

TongiHus  in  fever  ?    I  know  what  he  's  at : 
On  the  dainties  his  toadies  will  send  he  'd  be  fat.  .  .  . 
He  must  have  a  hot  bath,  every  doctor 's  agreed. 
Why,  you  idiots,  it  isn't  a  fever  :   it 's  greed  !  ^ 

^  2.  lo.  2  5_  2j_  s  ^_  5g_  ^^  ^, 

•  9.  22.  15,  16.  ^  3.  9.  and  (with  omissions)  2.  40. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    109 

Exaggeration  crops  out  everywhere,  its  form  varying  from 
that  it  takes  in  the  simple  account  of  the  barber  who 
shaves  so  meticulously  that  by  the  time  he  has  finished 
a  fresh  growth  has  begun  to  appear/  to  that  of  elaborate 
passages  like  the  description  of  his  country  estate  : 
'  my  window  garden  at  Rome  is  larger,  a  grasshopper's 
wing  will  cover  it,  an  ant  in  a  day  eat  up  all  its  produce, 
a  cucumber  can't  lie  out  straight  on  it,  and  a  mouse 
can  strip  it  as  clear  as  the  great  boar  did  the  fields 
of  Calydon.'  ^  Last  may  be  mentioned  a  class  for 
which  I  can  think  of  no  better  label  than  the  word 
whimsical : 

When,  Labienus,  you  I  chanced  to  see 
Sitting  alone,  methought  that  I  saw  three  : 
And  what  it  was  my  senses  thus  misled 
Was — just  the  reckoning  of  your  bald  head. 
You  've  locks  on  this,  and  locks  on  th'  other  side 
Such  as  a  pretty  girl  might  own  with  pride, 
But  in  the  centre  you  're  completely  bare  : 
In  all  the  expanse  there  isn't  seen  a  hair. 
This  in  the  theatre  no  small  boon  you  found 
When  Caesar  sent  free  luncheon  baskets  round. 
Three  of  those  same  did  you  bring  home  as  prize  : 
What  Geryon  looked  like,  now  I  realize. ^ 

Chloe  much-loved  seven  husbands  dead 

Unto  one  tomb  consigned. 
'Twas  Chloe' s  work  the  inscription  said  : 

Where  could  you  franker  find  ?  * 

Your  face  is  black,  your  hair  like  flame, 
And  one  eye  's  damaged,  one  foot  lame  : 
If,  still,  you  're  quite  a  decent  chap — 
Well,  'tis  a  feather  in  your  cap.^ 

1  7.  83.  *  II.  18. 

*  5.  49.  Geryon  was  a  mythical  monster  possessed  of  three  human 
heads. 

*  9.  15.  The  inscription  would  vwn  fecit  Chloe,  and  these  words, 
which  in  reality  simply  signified  that  Clilce  was  responsible  for  the 
building  of  the  tomb,  were  susceptible  of  the  interpretation  '  she  was 
responsible  for  their  deaths,'  ^12,  54. 


no    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

With  Falemian  of  age  and  of  flavour 

Newest  Vatican  wherefore  combine  ? 
Has  the  filthy  stuff  done  you  a  favour  ? 

Have  you  ever  been  wronged  by  good  wine  ? 
No  personal  feeling  I  cherish  : 

For  the  murdered  Falemian  I  sigh. 
Though  your  guests  may  deservedly  perish, 

It  is  not  for  such  bottles  to  die.^ 

You  often  ask  what  part  I  'd  play 
If  wealth  and  influence  came  my  way. 
D'  ye  think  a  man  can  thus  infer 
His  hypothetic  character  ? 
Then  tell  me,  for  example's  sake. 
What  sort  of  lion  you  would  make  ?  - 

Something  like  a  seventh  of  the  epigrams  deal 
with  objectionable  themes,  but  the  poet's  defence, 
put  forward  in  the  first  of  the  prose  prefaces  which 
precede  certain  books,  to  the  effect  that  a  certain 
amount  of  licentious  language  was  expected  of  an 
epigrammatist,  will  not  be  ignored  by  any  one  who 
remembers  how  strong  the  influence  of  literary  con- 
vention is  upon  Latin  authors,  how  a  serious  person 
hke  the  younger  PHny  apologizes  for  composing  what 
some  thought  '  rather  wanton  '  verses  with  an  appeal 
to  the  precedent  set  by — Cicero,  Pollio,  Brutus,  Calvus, 
and  many  other  men  of  unblemished  reputation.^ 
The  very  line  that  is  sometimes  quoted  to  prove 
that  Martial  himself  realized  that  he  had  gone  far 
beyond  conventional  looseness — 

My  book 's  licentious,  but  my  life  is  clean, 
is  an  echo  of  Catullus,  to  be  explained  as  we  have 

^  I.  i8.  -  12.  92. 

'  Ep.  4.  14.  4  ex  quibus  [hendecasyllahis)  si  nonnulla  tibi  paullo 
petulantiora  uidebuntur,  erit  eruditionis  tuae  cogitare  summos  illos  et 
grauissimos  iitros  qui  talia  scripserunt  non  modo  lasciuia  rerum  sed  ne 
uerbis  qiiidein  nudis  abstinuisse  :   cp.  5.  3.  5. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    iii 

explained  the  Virgil  imitation  of  the  epics.^  Martial 
was  no  Juvenal,  and  if  he  was  to  describe  vice  must 
do  so  in  the  language  of  raillery,  not  diatribe.  With 
those  who  make  much  of  the  fact  that  he  flattered 
Domitian,  and  charge  him  with  having  practised  a 
shameless  mendicancy,  I  have  little  patience.  It 
is  certainly  a  pity  that  he  fawned  before  so  vicious 
an  emperor,  but  if  he  is  to  be  blamed  for  not  having 
swum  against  the  flood,  what  are  we  to  say  of  the 
Augustans  who  opened  the  gates  for  it  at  a  time 
when  the  memory  of  the  Republic  was  still  green  ? 
The  other  charge  is  to  my  mind  ridiculous.  '  It  never 
can  have  been  comme  il  faut  in  any  age  or  nation  for 
a  man  of  note  ...  to  be  constantly  asking  for  money, 
clothes,  and  dainties,  and  to  pursue  with  volleys  of 
abuse  those  who  would  give  him  nothing,'  says 
Macaulay.2  Yet  who  had  a  more  intimate  sense  of 
the  comma  il  faut  of  that  very  un- Victorian  day  than 
the  Pliny  who  speaks  of  Martial  as  one  from  whom 
he  has  parted  on  most  affectionate  terms,  whom  he 
is  now  mourning  as  a  prized  friend,  who  has  given 
him  his  best  and  would  have  given  more  if  he  could. ^ 
The  phrase  '  volleys  of  abuse  '  finds  its  answer  in  Pliny's 
reference  to  the  poet's  freedom  from  bitterness.'* 
That  he  should  be  largely  dependent  on  his  patrons 
was  inevitable  for  reasons  already  indicated — which 

^  Mart.  I.  4.  8  lasciua  est  nobis  pagina,  uita  proba  ;  Catull.  16. 
5  nam  castum  esse  decet  pium  poetam\ipsum,  uersiculos  nihil  necesse 
est,  etc.  (words  actually  cited  by  Pliny  in  the  letter  quoted  just  above. 

*  Life  and  Letters,  chap.  14. 

*  Ep.  3.  21.  esp.  %  6  et  tunc  dimisi  amicissime  et  nunc 
ut  amicissimum  defunctum  esse  doleo.  dedit  enim  mihi  quantum 
maximum  potuit,  daturus  amplius  si  potuisset.  Pliny  quotes  in  this 
letter  some  lines  from  an  epigram  (10.  19)  in  which  Martial  had  paid 
him  a  compliment. 

*  L.c.  §  I  qui  plurimum  in  scribendo  et  salts  haberet  et  fellis,  nee 
candoris  minus. 


112    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Macaulay  himself  at  the  beginning  of  his  essay  on 
Montgomery's  poems  seems  to  recognize  as  adequate. 
It  argues  a  certain  lack  of  the  sense  of  humour,  at  any 
rate  a  feeble  conception  of  the  difftculties  that  beset 
a  man  who  has  to  turn  out  more  or  less  regular  instal- 
ments of  occasional  verse,  when  an  epigram  in  which 
raptures  over  the  receipt  of  a  new  suit  are  cut  short 
by  the  reflexion  '  but  how  shabby  my  old  overcoat 
will  look  now  '  ^  is  construed  as  nothing  else  than  a 
request  for  more  clothes,  or  when  mere  impudence  is 
read  into  such  verses  as  : 

Since  in  the  house  there  's  not  a  sou 

There  's  but  one  thing  to  try. 
I  '11  sell  the  gifts  I  've  had  of  you, 

Dear  Regulus.     Come,  buy  ! 

When  the  rain  my  thatched  cottage  but  ill  kept  at  bay, 
And  was  like  in  the  winter  to  swim  right  away. 
There  arrived  from  my  friend  a  whole  cartload  of  slates 
That  would  carry  off  harmless  the  fiercest  of  spates. 
Hark,  my  Stella  !    December  blows  boisterous  and  rude  : 
You  've  covered  the  cottage — the  cotter  left  nude.^ 

Such  documents  cannot  always  be  interpreted  at 
sight.  Long  ago  Lessing  pointed  out  that  in  spite 
of  lines  addressed  by  Martial  To  my  wife  there  was 
every  reason  to  believe  that  he  lived  and  died  a  bachelor. 
With  the  aid  of  a  little  common  sense  and  openminded- 
ness,  however,  much  can  be  done  with  them,  and  some 
aspects  in  the  character  thus  revealed  are  attractive. 
Our  poet  is  by  no  means  deaf  to  the  appeal  of  the 
gentler  emotions.  Every  one  knows  the  pathetic 
turn  he  gives  in  little  Erotion's  epitaph  to  the  con- 
ventional Earth  lie  light  of  the  tombstones  : 

Rest  hghtly  on  her,  earth,  for  she 
Trod  never  heavily  on  thee.^ 

1  8.  28.  2  7.  16  and  36. 

'  5-  34-  9  wee  illi\terra grauis  fueris  :  nonfuit  ilia  tibi. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    113 

Less  familiar  is  the  poem  in  which  a  dove  that 
has  flown  into  Aratulla's  bosom  and  resists  dislodg- 
ment  is  prettily  interpreted  as  harbinger  of  her  exiled 
brother's  imminent  return.^  There  are  two  charming 
pieces  on  that  butt  of  epigram  and  satire,  the  married 
state,  one  a  little  epithalamium  concluding  with  the 
prayer 

And  when  age  comes  may  she  no  less  adore. 
He  deem  her  wrinkled  face  young  as  of  yore  ^ — 

the  other  celebrating  the  devotion  of  Nigrina,   who 

brings  her  husband's  ashes  all  the  way  from  Asia 

Minor  for  burial  and,  in  her  reluctance  to  part  with 

the  precious  burden,  finds  the  long  journey  all  too 

short. ^    The  frequent  protests  against  ascription  to 

his  pen  of  spiteful,  personal  epigrams  make  one  realize 

how  he  would  have  valued  Phny's  testimony  to  his 

'  whiteness ' :  *  when  people  ask  him  Who  is  So-and-so 

of  your  verses  P  he  refuses  to  answer — or  regrets  that  he 

has  quite  forgotten  !  ^    Against  the  drudgery  of   his 

social  duties  he  wages  incessant  war.     He  hates  the 

early  crowd  and  dirty  streets,  especially  when  a  call 

finds  the  friend  or  patron  not  at  home — 

Two  miles  divide  us,  which,  if  I  my  door 
Am  once  again  to  reach,  amount  to  four.  .  .  . 
Two  miles  to  see  you,  that  I  do  not  mind  : 
Four  not  to  see  you,  all  too  much  I  find.^ 

City  poets  have  a  way  of  affecting  a  taste  for  the 
simple,    open-air   life   of   the   country,    but   Martial's 

1  8.  32. 

*  4.  13.  9  dtligat  dla  senem  quondam,  sed  et  ipsa  marito\tum 
qiioque,  cum  f tier  it,  non  nideatur  anus.  The  reference  is  to  Pudens 
and  Claudia  of  p.  loi. 

»  9.  30. 

*  See  e.g.  7.  12.  3  mea  nee  iuste  quos  odit  pagina  laesit  \  et  mihi  de 
nullo  fama  rubore  placet,  10.  3.  9  procul  a  libellis  nigra  sit  meis  fama. 

^  I.  96.  14  quaeris  quis  hie  sit  ?  excidit  mihi  nomen  :   cp.  2.  23. 

*  2.  5  (with  omissions). 

H 


114    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

language  on  this  topic  rings  true.  A  poem  in  which 
he  discloses  to  a  friend  his  longing  for  a  little  estate, 
where  he  can  live  without  seeing  callers,  with  the 
'  spoils  of  countryside  and  sea  '  at  his  command,  ends 
convincingly  : 

'Gainst  such  a  life  let  all  that  hate  me  rail 
And  live  the  round  of  fashion,  fagged  and  pale.'- 

The  voice  of  envy  is  unmistakable  in 

Tho'  each  day  you  are  gone  will  be  dismal  and  sad, 

Still,  Domitius,  I  swear  on  my  life,  I  am  glad. 

'Gainst  the  pain  of  my  loss  must  be  balanced  my  glee 

From  the  city's  tight  collar  to  know  your  neck  free. 

So  be  off,  and  drink  in  every  ray  of  the  sun. 

What  a  beau  you  will  be  when  the  hohday  's  done  ! 

Why,  your  features  returning  your  friend  will  scarce  know, 

And  the  wan  crowds  will  envy  your  cheeks  all  aglow. 

But  alas  !    Though  you  come  back  a  nigger  in  face. 

All  the  bronze  of  your  travel  Rome  soon  will  erase ;  ^ 

as  is  that  of  the  triumphant  holiday-maker  in 

Oh,  Faustinus,  the  things  that  you  've  missed  there  in  town. 

The  bright  days  and  the  loafing,  without  any  gown, 

Oh,  the  woods  and  the  springs,  and  the  sands  firm  and  wet, 

And  bright  Anxur  itself,  by  the  breakers  all  set. 

And  the  bed  whence  through  casements  that  ope  on  each  side 

One  can  see  the  boats  moving  on  river  or  tide.^ 

It  is  unfortunately  a  fact  that  descriptions  of  scenery 
formed  a  regular  item  in  the  rhetoric  courses,  but  the 
lines  on  a  villa  of  the  poet's  friend  Martial  surely 
breathe  nothing  but  that  quiet  yet  intense  satisfaction 
which  the  genuine  lover  of  nature  experiences  in  the 
contemplation  of  a  panorama — 

There  stands  a  gently  swelling  hill 
Whose  crown  an  even  terrace  forms. 
The  which  its  own  bright  sunshine  warms 

When  mists  the  winding  valleys  fill. 


1  I.  55.  13,  14.  *  10.  12.  3  sqq.  8   10.  51.  5-10. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    115 

The  dainty  gables  of  thy  home 

Spring  Ughtly  to  the  cloudless  blue  : 
This  side,  seven  sovereign  hills  you  view 

And  at  a  glance  appraise  all  Rome.  .  .  . 

But  there,  along  the  Northern  way 
In  silent  car  the  traveller  steals  : 
No  clatter  from  his  whirling  wheels 

The  soft  approach  of  sleep  can  stay. 

No  boatswain's  call  disturbs  your  dream, 
No  shout  of  them  that  barges  tow, 
Tho'  close  the  Mulvian  bridge  below 

And  boats  that  ride  the  sacred  stream. ^ 

Those  who  seek  further  proof  of  the  bona  fides  of 
such  passages  should  turn  to  the  twelfth  book,  and  see 
Martial  back  in  Spain,  visiting  spots  whose  dear, 
outlandish  names  he  has  twice  ventured,  regardless 
of  all  literary  precedent  and  the  susceptibilities  of 
cultured  ears,  to  catalogue  in  an  epigram, ^  voicing 
his  happiness  in  the  poems  which  describe  the  estate 
bestowed  on  him  by  the  lady  bountiful  Marcella,^ 
the  delight  of  a  birthday  when  one  need  not  give  a 
formal  dinner  party  and  worry  as  to  whether  the  wine 
is  carefully  decanted  and  the  idiosyncrasies  of  each 
guest  properly  accommodated.* 

No  sketch  of  Martial's  personahty  can  be  adequate 
that  does  not  do  justice  to  the  naivety  of  his  joy  at 
finding  himself  famous,  the  bitterness  with  which  he 
rails  at  the  huge  incomes  made  by  jockeys,  auction- 
eers, and  architects,  or  the  airs  and  graces  of  wealthy 

1  4.  64.  5  sqq. 

2  I.  49,  4.  55:  e.g.  tutelamque  chorosque  Rixamarum\et  conniuia 
festa  Carduarmii\et  textis  Peterin  rosis  rubentem\atqiie  antiqica 
pairum  theatra  Rigas  \  et  certos  iaculo  leui  Silaos  \  Turgontique  lactia 
Ferusiaeque\et  paruae  uada  pura  Tuetonissae\et  sanctum  Buradonis 
ilicetum  (4  I.e.  16  sqq.) 

'  12.31.     In  12.  21  he  tells  this  lady  that  her  charm  and  culture 
make  Bilbilis  a  Rome  for  him. 
*  12.  6o. 


ii6    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

parvenus,  the  persistence  with  which  he  preaches  the 
text  Start  life  in  lieu  of  mere  existence,  and  not  to- 
morrow, but  to-day  !  But  Martial  has  already  had  his 
fair  share  in  the  pages  of  this  book,  and  I  must  bid  him 
farewell  with  a  version  of  lines  in  which  he  himself, 
on  the  eve  of  his  return  to  Spain,  takes  leave  of  the 
other  Martial  : 

We  have  had  together  now 

Four  and  thirty  years,  I  trow, 

Wherein  mixed  are  grief  and  glee — 

But  joys  in  the  majority. 

If  coloured  stones  the  reckoning  show, 

White  for  mirth  and  black  for  woe, 

White  will  be  the  longer  row. 

Would  you  some  vexation  flee. 

Keep  from  bitter  heart-pangs  free  ? 

Tie  with  none  too  close  maintain  : 

You  '11  have  less  gladness — and  less  pain.^ 

Martial's  popularity  came  at  once,  never  to  depart. 
The  grammarians  note  exceptional  forms  used  by 
him,  and  he  was  held  worthy  of  a  critical  edition 
in  the  brief  Renaissance  period  that  closes  the  fourth 
century. 2  Sidonius  imitates  him,  and  the  epitaph 
of  a  Spanish  bishop  who  died  in  a.d.  641  borrows 
one  of  his  lines. ^  How  the  surname  Coquus  (cook) 
attached  itself  to  him  in  the  Middle  Ages — John 
of  Salisbury  for  instance  uses  it — is  a  mystery  as 
yet  unsolved.  It  is  curious  to  see  how  often  he  is 
quoted  in  such  critical  essays  as  Jonson's  Discoveries 
and  the  preface  to  Webster's  White  Divel :  Milton 
alleges  his  prose  prefaces  in  defence  of  his  own  to 
Samson.     But  before  these  writers,  Surrey  has  a  version 

1  12.  34. 

-  The  record  of  this  is  preserved  in  the  suhscriptio  of  one  group  of 
MSS. 

^  For  Sidonius  cp.  e.g.  Carm.  23.  495  (=Mart.  2.  48.  8),  for  the 
bishop  see  Friedlaender's  edition,  p.  68^. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    117 

in  his  Songs  and  Sonnets,  and  Elyot  in  the  Governour 
admits  that  despite  '  dissolute  wrytynge '  he  has 
'  commendable  sentences,'  one  of  which  he  proceeds 
to  murder  by  the  clumsiest  of  translations. ^  Davies 
in  his  Epigrams,  Herrick  in  Hesperides,  betray  a  fair 
knowledge  of  our  poet,  and  I  fancy  the  microscopic 
details  of  Oberon's  Feast  are  inspired  by  such  passages 
as  that  quoted  above  from  the  description  of  a  country 
estate.  Cowley  often  quotes  and  translates  in  his 
Essays,  Pope  takes  a  hne  as  motto  for  the  Rape  of 
the  Lock.  In  France,  Malherbe,  Maynard,  and  Piron 
imitate  or  translate,  and  Voiture  compares  a  translator 
of  Curtius  who  is  for  ever  retouching  his  work  to  the 
conscientious  barber  of  p.  109.  In  Germany  Lessing 
makes  Martial  the  centre  of  his  essay  on  the  epigram 
and  often  imitates  him  in  his  own  attempts  at  that 
kind  of  verse. 

2.  Statins'  Silvae 

The  Silvae  of  Statius  seem  to  have  begun  to  appear 
almost  immediately  after  the  Thebais  :  ^  the  thirty- 
two  poems  are  arranged  in  five  books,  of  which  the 
first  contains  a  reference  to  the  death  of  Rutihus 
Gallus  3  (about  the  end  of  a.d,  91),  the  third  mentions 
the  conclusion  of  the  Sarmatian  war  ^  (latter  half 
of  A.D.  92),  the  fourth  appeared  in  a.d.  95,^  and  the 
fifth,  which  alone  has  no  prose  preface,  was  probably 
posthumous.      The  silva  on  the  death  of  the  poet's 

^  Governour  i.  13. 
2  For  the  life  of  Statius  see  p.  23. 

'  Silu.  I  pr.  de  quo  {sc.  a  poem  dedicated  to  Rutilius)  nihil  dico, 
ne  iiidear  defuncti  testis  occasione  mentiri. 

*  3-  3-  170,  171-  _       ... 

^  The  preface  and  the  first  silua  do  honour  to  Domitian  s  seven- 
teenth consulship  of  that  year. 


ii8   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

father  was  originally  composed  three  months  after 
the  event,  the  date  of  which  is  however  uncertain 
(though  certainly  later  than  that  of  the  eruption  of 
Vesuvius  in  79).!  The  other  pieces  contain  nothing 
that  justifies  us  in  believing  them  to  have  been  com- 
posed before  89. 

The  Greek  word  vXt],  cognate  and  equivalent  in 
general  meaning  of  silva  ('wood/  'forest'),  is  often 
used  in  the  sense  '  raw  material,'  and  this  must  have 
been  the  sense  in  which  the  Latin  word  was  applied, 
as  we  know  from  Quintilian  ^  it  was,  by  the  rhetoricians 
to  the  first  draught  of  a  composition,  fresh  from  its 
creator's  pen,  unpohshed  and  unrevised.  Of  the  nature 
of  Lucan's  Silvae  we  know  nothing  :  those  of  Statius 
have  one  point  in  common  with  those  of  rhetoric. 
The  prose  prefaces  which  Martial  prefixes  to  some 
books  are  the  regular  thing  with  Statius,  and  in  those 
of  the  first  three  books  he  emphasizes  the  rapidity 
with  which  he  has  written  the  pieces — none,  he  says, 
of  those  in  Book  One  have  occupied  him  more  than 
two  days,  and  one  was  produced  during  a  dinner. 
The  implication  is  that  they  have  not  since  been 
revised. 

Save  for  four  sets  of  hendecasyllables,  one  of 
Sapphics,  and  one  of  Alcaics,^  the  Silvae  are  written 
in  hexameters.  Most  of  them  are  panegyrical  and 
comphmentary,  addressed  to  the  emperor  or  some 
influential  person.  The  others  are  personal  poems, 
some  of  them  more  or  less  autobiographical  :   an  elegy 

^  See  5.  3  (esp.  11.  29  sqq.).  The  elder  Statius  had  had  in  con- 
templation the  composition  of  a  poem  on  the  eruption  (I.e.  205  sqq.). 

^  Quint.  10.  3.  17  prima  decurrere  per  materiam  stilo  quam  uelocis- 
simo  uolunt  et  sequentes  calorem  atque  impetum  ex  tempore  scribunt : 
hanc  siluam  uocant. 

3  Hendecasyllables:  i.  6,  2.  7,  4.  3.  and  9;  Sapphics;  4.  7; 
Alcaics :  4.  5. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    119 

on  the  poet's  father,  another  on  a  favourite  slave, 
an  address  to  his  wife,  gently  upbraiding  her  reluctance 
to  exchange  the  capital  for  the  provincial  life  of 
Naples,  an  invocation  of  sleep  (inspired  by  an  attack  of 
insomnia),  a  letter  to  Quintilian's  Vitorius  Marcellus, 
and  some  Catullian  verses  in  which  he  reproaches  a 
friend  who  has  sent  him,  as  Saturnalia  present,  a 
musty  copy  of  the  speeches  of  Brutus.^  As  for  the 
complimentary  pieces,  they  either  are  written  for 
particular  occasions  (Domitian's  seventeenth  consul- 
ship, Polla's  celebration  of  Lucan's  birthday,  Stella's 
wedding,  Rutihus'  convalescence,  Celer's  voyage, 
the  birth  of  a  son  to  this  or  that  person,  the  death  of 
some  one's  father  or  wife  or  favourite  slave), ^  or  else 
describe  some  treasured  possession  or  magnificent 
act  of  the  great  man's  (a  country  house,  or  a  temple 
in  its  grounds,  a  bath,  a  statuette,  a  freak  tree,  a 
dinner  at  court,  Domitian's  new  road).^  Many  of  the 
addressees  reckoned  Martial  among  their  clients, 
but  Statins  is  on  a  better  footing  with  them  and  never 
calls  them  patroni.  It  must  be  remembered  that  his 
pantomime  hbrettos  were  profitable.  Martial  had  only 
one  string  to  his  bow. 

There  was  nothing  very  new  about  the  themes. 
The  composition  of  speeches  bearing  upon  a  wedding, 
a  birthday,  a  recovery  from  illness,  a  departure  on  a 
voyage,  an  act  of  generosity  was  practised  in  the 
rhetorical  schools,  and  some  of  our  pieces  actually 
bear  the  technical  names  for  such  exercises — epitha- 
lamium,  genethliacon,  soteria,  prope?npticon,  eucha- 
risticon.     Epicedion,  the  name  given  to  some  of  the 

^  The  poems  are  (in  the  order  of  the  text)  5.  3.  and  5  ;  3.  5  ; 
5.  4  ;   4.  4.  and  9. 

2  S04.  I  ;  2.  7;  1.2  ;  1.4;  3.  2  ;  4.  7.  and  8  ;  3.  3  ;  5.  i ;  2.  i.and6. 
»  So  I.  3.  and  2.  2  ;   3.  i  ;    1.5;   4.  6  ;   2.  3  ;  4.  2  ;  4.  3. 


120   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

elegies,  is  probably  a  mere  variant  for  that  regularly 
borne  by  funeral  orations,  epitaphion.  Two  of  them, 
however,  bear  the  name  consolatio,  and  this  form  of 
philosophic  composition  is  really  the  model  of  all. 
The  descriptions  of  scenery  and  works  of  art  take  us 
back  again  to  the  rhetorical  sphere,  where  they  were 
called  ecphrases.  Nor  was  even  the  treatment  of  such 
subjects  in  verse  a  novelty.  The  elegiac  poets  had 
long  ago  appropriated  the  arguments  of  the  consola- 
tiones,  Theocritus  and  Catullus  composed  epithalamia, 
Horace  and  other  Augustans  had  wished  comrade 
or  mistress  bon  voyage,  Propertius'  description  of 
Apollo's  Palatine  temple  is  an  ecphrasis.  Martial, 
indeed,  in  his  epigrams  had  covered  the  whole  field 
of  the  Silvae.  The  innovation  on  Statins'  part  lay 
in  the  all  but  exclusive  use  of  the  hexameter  in  place 
of  elegiac  and  lyric  measures,  and  in  the  length  of  the 
pieces,  three-fifths  of  which  run  to  over  a  hundred 
lines,  and  a  sixth  to  over  two  hundred.  In  this  second 
point,  as  well  as  in  certain  details  of  the  composition, 
these  poems  remind  one  of  the  '  little  epics  '  that  have 
come  down  to  us  along  with  the  idylls  proper  of 
Theocritus. 

The  hexameter  of  these  poems  is  not  that  of  the 
Thehais.  It  is  the  ideal  vehicle  for  a  composition  that 
wishes  to  seem  facile  and  rapid.  Sometimes,  as  in  the 
description  of  an  episode  which  led  to  the  improving 
of  a  temple  of  Hercules  that  stood  in  the  grounds 
.of  Polhus'  villa,  a  fairly  unconstrained  heroic  verse 
seems  to  render  it  most  justice  : 

Diana's  ^  day  we  spent  upon  the  shore  : 

The  house  seemed  cramped  and  smaller  than  of  yore. 

*  Aug.  13th,  the  anniversary  of  the  dedication  of  the  temple  of 
Diana  on  the  Aventine. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    121 

There,  "neath  a  tree  that  spread  with  branches  wide 

A  leafy  shelter,  we  the  sun  defied. 

Sudden  the  day 's  o'ercast,  heaven  disappears, 

And  to  the  rainy  south  the  Zephyr  veers. 

E'en  with  such  clouds  did  Juno  Libya  hide 

When  to  the  Trojan  Dido  came  as  bride, 

And  the  nymphs'  marriage-song  filled  all  the  countryside. 

Pell  mell  we  make  for  shelter,  and  as  swift 

Viands  and  brimming  cups  the  servants  shift ; 

No  lack  of  houses  in  the  lields  that  lay 

Above  ;    the  hillside  gleamed  with  arbours  gay. 

But  instant  shelter  's  craved,  and  all  believe 

The  day  will  yet  its  promise  fair  retrieve. 

There  stood,  a  temple  styled,  a  simple  shed 

Threatening  with  low-hung  roof  Alcides'  head. 

That  scarce  to  fishermen  or  sliipwrecked  crew 

Lodging  could  give  :    this  is  our  rendez-vous. 

Here  chairs  and  tables,  crowds  of  serving  men 

Are  packed,  and  radiant  PoUa's  comely  train. 

The  crush  the  temple's  bankruptcy  reveals. 

The  god  himself  with  smiles  his  shame  conceals  : 

To  Pollius'  cherished  heart  liis  way  he  wins 

And  with  embraces  coaxing  thus  begins.^ 

At  other  times  it  moves  with  a  vigour  and  pace 
that  call  for  the  anapaest,  as  in  the  following  passage 
from  Pollius'  Villa  at  Surrentum  : 

Of  old  masters  and  bronzes  why  read  out  the  roll  ? 

You  have  all  that  Apelles'  glad  colours  gave  soul, 

All  that  Phidias  did  chisel,  with  workmanship  rare. 

In  the  days  when  the  temple  at  Pisa  stood  bare. 

What  with  life  Polyclitus  and  Myron  inspired. 

Bronze  from  Corinth's  dead  ashes,  than  gold  more  desired, 

Busts  of  captains  and  singers  and  sages  of  yore 

In  whose  footsteps  you  treading,  soul  steeped  in  their  lore, 

Have  all  sorrow  and  passion  now  learned  to  allay. 

And  in  virtue  found  peace,  your  own  master  for  aye. 

From  turrets  unnumbered  comes  view  after  view, 

Not  one  but 's  delightful,  not  one  but  is  new. 

Its  own  special  sea-board  each  chamber  can  boast. 

Every  window  its  strip  of  the  opposite  coast. 

^  3.  I.  68-90. 


122    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

'Tis  Inarime  here,  but  there  Prochyta  stern, 

Whilst  next  door  mighty  Hector's  esquire  ^  you  discern.  .  .  . 

Next  in  order  comes  Limon  that  wistfully  eyes 

The  fine  house  'cross  the  bay  where  his  dear  master  lies.^ 

But  dearest  the  chamber  that  flings  in  thy  face 

Straight  across  the  wide  waters  thine  own  native  place.  .  .  . 

On  the  billow's  domain  your  rich  cornfields  intrude, 
With  the  nectar  of  Bacchus  the  cliffs  are  bedewed. 
And,  when  berries  are  mellow  in  autumn,  full  oft 
Under  veil  of  the  night  climbs  a  sea-nymph  aloft, 
With  a  spray  ripe  and  lush  clears  her  eyes  of  the  brine. 
And  plucks  from  the  slopes  the  sweet  fruit  of  the  vine. 
Oft  the  spume  of  the  billows  the  vintage  will  lave. 
And  the  satyrs  go  tumbling  about  in  the  wave, 
And  Doris  the  mountain-Pans  seek  to  surprise 
Here  and  there  thro'  the  breakers  as  naked  she  flies.- 

The  language  too  is  distinctly  simpler  than  that 
of  the  epics.  Unfortunately  our  MSS.  (except  for  one 
particular  poem)  all  descend  from  one  that  is  now 
generally  allowed  to  be  the  copy  made  for  Poggio,  by 
a  scribe  on  whose  ignorance  he  lays  stress,  of  that 
which  he  himself  discovered  at  the  time  of  the  Council 
of  Constance.  Anyhow,  the  text  is  full  of  corruptions, 
and  the  rashness  of  one  editor  who  practically  rewrote 
it  has  produced  a  reaction  that  finds  nothing  too 
forced  and  clumsy  for  acceptance  as  the  work  of 
Statins.  A  careful  study  of  the  less  corrupt  passages 
has  convinced  me  of  the  justice  of  the  statement  which 
stands  at  the  beginning  of  this  paragraph.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  although  the  poet's  boasts  as  to 
the  rapidity  with  which  he  works  need  not  be  taken 
too  seriously,  he  certainly  has  been  careful  to 
give  these  pieces  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the 

*  Misenus,  buried  on  the  northern  headland  of  the  Bay  of  Naples, 
which  regularly  bore  his  name. 

*  2.  2.  63-106  (with  omissions). 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    123 

impromptu  :  the  similes,  for  instance,  are  much  less 
elaborate  than  those  of  the  epics,  and  the  frequency 
with  which  words  are  repeated,  or  echoed  in  a  de- 
rivative form,  within  the  space  of  a  few  lines, ^  is  too 
marked  to  be  accidental.  Such  devices  would  surely 
have  been  absolutely  nullified  by  the  use  of  a  precious 
vocabulary  and  the  introduction  of  subtle  conceits. 

The  modern  tendency  is  to  prefer  the  Silvae  to  the 
Thebais,  a  fact  which  makes  it  necessary  to  dwell 
upon  the  serious  faults  they  exhibit.  Callimachus, 
voting  a  great  book  a  great  evil,  no  doubt  regarded 
the  idyll  epics  with  which  I  have  compared  Statins' 
pieces  as  vastly  superior  to  the  six  thousand  lines 
of  Apollonius'  Argonautica.  But  the  length  of  even 
a  short  epic  is  too  much  for  an  occasional  poem,  and 
when  Martial  deals  in  an  epigram  with  a  theme  to 
which  Statins  has  devoted  a  silva  ^  we  reahze  the 
fact.  The  devices  by  which  expansion  is  secured 
are  not  very  varied,  and  generally  suggest  the  rhetorical 
school.  A  favourite  one  is  the  introduction  of  divine 
machinery.  This  is  not  by  any  means  inadmissible 
in  poetry  of  this  kind.  On  the  contrary,  the  con- 
ception of  Hercules,  clearing  away  the  soil  by  night  so 
that  the  men  who  are  building  his  temple  are  surprised 
next  morning  to  find  the  ground  so  level, ^  is  surely 
quite  happy.  Much  depends  on  the  restraint  with 
which  the  ornament  is  used,  and  unfortunately  Statins 
rides  it  to  death  :  nearly  a  third  of  the  poems  exhibit 
it  in  some  form  or  other.     About  half  the  epithalamium 

*  See  Vollmer's  ed.,  Einleitung,  pp.  28  sqq. 

2  Mart.  6.  42  descrit)es  the  bath  of  silu.  1.  5,  Mart.  7-  21,  22,  and 
23  are  concerned  with  the  birthday  of  Lucan,  to  which  silu.  2.  7  is 
devoted. 

*  3.  I.  134  decrescunt  scopuli  et  rosea  sub  luce  reversi  \  artifices 
niirantur  opus. 


124    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

is  concerned  with  the  efforts  of  Venus  to  win  the  bride's 
love  for  the  bridegroom,  about  half  the  soteria  with 
the  services  of  Apollo  and  Aesculapius,  whilst  Domitian's 
road  evokes  the  apparitions  of  the  river-god  Volturnus 
and  the  sibyl  of  Cumae.^  Another  wearisome  feature 
is  the  mythological  illustration  or  allusion.  Here, 
again,  the  poet  has  some  happy  inspirations,  but  they 
are  rare,  the  frigidities  incessant.  The  theme  of 
youthful  charm  and  beauty  is  one  we  have  seen  our 
poet  handle  with  success  in  the  Thebais  :  in  the 
Silvae  he  relies  almost  entirely  on  mythological  figures. 
The  Fates  have  done  Glaucia  to  death.  Why,  those 
notorious  child-slayers,  Procne,  Medea  Athamas, 
yea,  even  Ulysses,  who  flung  Astyanax  down,  would 
have  spared  one  so  gracious.^  Here  is  a  slave  boy 
with  whom  Theseus,  Paris,  Achilles,  Troilus,  Partheno- 
paeus  were  not  comparable. ^  Earinus  is  an  Endymion, 
an  Atys,  a  Narcissus,  a  Hylas ;  Crispinus  ahorse 
is  Ascanius,  or,  again,  Troilus  and  Parthenopaeus.^ 
Once,  indeed,  it  looks  almost  as  if  Statius  had  anticipated 
the  principles  of  Euphuism  and  actually  invented  his 
examples.  An  adopted  son  may  be  dearer  than  the 
child  of  one's  own  loins  is  the  point  :  that  is  why, 
he  adds,  Achilles  had  more  kindness  of  his  tutor 
Chiron  than  his  father  Peleus,  and  was  accompanied 
to  Troy  not  by  the  latter  but  by  Phoenix,  even  as  it 
was  Acoetes,  not  Evander,  came  with  Pallas  to  help 
Aeneas,  and  (choicest  tit-bit  of  all !)  Jove  left  Perseus 
to  be  reared  by  the  fisherman  Dictys.^  The  reader 
of  Statius  never  knows  when  he  is  not  going  to  be 
shocked  by  some  extraordinary  instance  of  bad  taste, 

'■   I.  2.  51-200,  4.  58-110  ;  4.  3.  69  sqq.,  114  sqq. 

*  2.  I.  140  sqq.  ^   2.  6.  25  sqq.,   42  sqq. 

*  3.  4.  40  sqq.,   5.  2.  118  sqq.  ^   2.  i.  84  sqq. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    125 

but  the  Silvae  surely  contain  the  poet's  worst  lapses  in 
this  direction.  He  is  convinced  that  his  wife  would  give 
her  hfe  for  him,  because  she  cherishes  so  faithfully 
the  memory  of  his  predecessor.  ^  The  attempt  to 
clothe  such  an  argument  in  words  that  will  not  jar 
would  tax  the  powers  of  even  a  great  writer,  but  Statius 
rushes  fearlessly  in  and  caps  a  vivid  description  of 
the  way  in  which  the  widow  '  yearns  for  the  departed 
and  clings  to  the  memory  of  his  obsequies  '  with  a 
fatal  iam  niea  '  though  she  is  now  mine. '  How  generous 
to  little  Glaucia  MeHor  was  may  be  gathered  from  the 
fact  that  he  never  let  himself  be  tempted  to  buy 
his  clothes  a  size  larger  (to  allow  for  the  boy's  growth). ^ 
A  wife  on  her  death-bed  ends  her  last  address  to  her 
husband  with  a  request  that  he  will  set  up  in  her 
memory  on  the  Capitol  a  golden  image — of  Domitian.^ 
Not,  of  course,  that  Statius'  tenderness  and  power 
to  express  a  beautiful  thought  entirely  desert  him  in 
this  new  field.  Some  of  the  lines  already  quoted 
from  the  Villa  of  Pollius  are  most  happy,  and  one 
feels  the  pathos  of  the  passage  *  where  Glaucia,  meeting 
in  the  shades  the  noble  Blaesus,  whom  he  recognizes 
as  the  original  of  a  bust  over  which  he  has  often 
seen  his  master  bending,  silently  approaches  and 
walks  timidly  along  with  him,  plucking  at  the  hem 
of  his  gown,  until  the  stranger  asks  who  he  is,  and  on 
being  informed  lifts  him  to  his  shoulders,  offering 
him  '  such  gifts  as  kindly  Elysium  vouchsafes,  boughs 
that  bear  no  fruit,  birds  that  have  no  song,  flowers 
whose  buds  are  nipped  and  wan.'  ^      An  attractive 

^  3-  5-  50  sqq.  »  2.  i.  129  sqq. 

'  5.  I.  189  sqq.  *  2.  I.  191  sqq. 

*  L.c.    203   quae   mtinera   mollis  \  Elysii,  steriles   ramos   mutasque 
uolucres\porgit  et  obtuso  palleiites  gcrmine  flores. 


126   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

poem  that  very  soon  caught  the  attention  of  modern 
critics  is  the  invocation  of  sleep  : 

Kindest  of  gods,  what  sin  or  error  's  mine 

That  I  alone  must  now  thy  gifts  resign  ? 

Cattle  and  birds  and  beasts  all  silence  keep 

And  trees  low-bending  mimic  weary  sleep. 

Hushed  the  wild  torrent's  din  ;    ruffled  no  more 

The  deep  ;    its  waves  lie  pillowed  on  the  shore. 

The  seventh  returning  moon  my  fevered  eyes 

Finds  still  on  guard  ;    seven  times  I  've  watched  arise 

Morning  and  even  star  ;    the  dawn  as  oft 

Hath  o'er  my  lamentations  passed  aloft 

And  flung  in  deep  compassion  of  mine  ills 

O'er  me  the  cooling  dew  her  whip  distils. 

How  can  I  suffer  so,  and  live  ?    Not  mine. 

The  thousand  eyes  of  Argus,  guard  divine, 

The  which  on  duty  he  alternate  left. 

Never  through  all  his  frame  of  sleep  bereft. 

Yet  one  there  well  may  be  this  livelong  night. 

Clasping  his  mistress,  spurneth  thee  outright. 

Oh,  come  from  him.     I  ask  not  thou  shouldst  pour 

The  full  strength  of  thy  sleepy  pinions'  store  : 

Let  happier  men  that  ampler  boon  implore. 

Enough,  with  tip  of  wand  thou  touch  my  head 

Or  pass  with  step  light-hovering  o'er  my  bed.^ 

What  Statius'  own  age  thought  of  these  poems 
we  do  not  know.  QuintiHan's  attack  on  the  silva 
as  a  rhetorical  exercise  ^  was  certainly  not  aimed  at 
them.  Claudian,  Ausonius  (especially  in  Mosella, 
where  he  easily  surpasses  our  poet  as  a  painter  of 
nature),  and  Sidonius  imitate  them,  the  grammarian 
Priscian  quotes  a  metrical  peculiarity  from  them, 
and  then  they  disappear,  save  for  a  few  traces  found 
in  the  time  of  Charlemagne  (who  himself  imitates 
the  epistolary  silva  to  Vitorius),  until  the  rediscovery 
by  Poggio.     J.  G.  de  Balzac  ^  and  Dryden  show  some 

»  5.  4.  »  10.  3.  17. 

*  See  e.g.  Entretiens  vi. 


LIGHT  AND  MISCELLANEOUS  VERSE    127 

familiarity  with  them,  the  latter  borrowing  more  than 
once  from  the  sleep-poem,  as  for  instance  in 

Dogs  cease  to  bark,  the  waves  more  faintly  roar 
And  roll  themselves  to  sleep  upon  the  shore?- 

Horace  Walpole  sends  West  a  few  lines  '  observed 
in  Statius  by  Gray  '  which  come  from  the  Vitorius 
letter,  dated,  Hke  Walpole's,  from  Naples.  Goethe's 
appreciation  of  the  Silvae  is  evidently  due  to  the 
antiquarian  interest  attaching  to  several  of  them — 
and  this,  I  fancy,  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  modern 
tendency  to  prefer  them  to  the  epics.  It  is  certainly 
difficult  to  think  of  any  Latin  poetry  that  provides 
more  complete  a  collection  of  the  faults  with  which 
the  Romanticists  reproach  classicism. 

*  Rival  Ladies  1.3:  cp.  Conquest  of  Mexico  3.  2,  Annus  Mirahilis 
98. 


CHAPTER  VI 
ORATORY 

THE  field  of  eloquence  was  divided  by  the  ancients 
into  the  three  provinces,  political,  forensic, 
and  epideictic.  In  the  first  of  these,  during 
our  period,  no  subject,  with  perhaps  the  soHtary  excep- 
tion of  Seneca,  had  any  opportunity  to  achieve  a 
reputation.  Of  the  emperors  there  seem  to  have  been 
few  that  had  not  their  share  of  the  Roman  gift  for 
pubhc  speaking.^  None,  however,  had  the  ease  and 
grace  of  Augustus,  and  only  a  Velleius  or  a  Martial  could 
regard  any  of  them  as  orators.  In  forensic  eloquence, 
the  rapid  growth  of  a  class  of  pleader  that  was  actuated 
only  by  the  consideration  of  the  pecuniary  reward 
which  attended  a  successful  prosecution  or  the  favour 
with  which  the  emperor  was  hkely  to  bestow  upon 
any  one  who  had  rid  him  of  an  enemy — delatores  ('  in- 
formers ')  as  they  were  called,  rather  than  orator es — did 
not  prevent  commoners  of  education  and  abihty  from 
seeking  to  win  a  great  and  honourable  name.  Never- 
theless, no  pleadings  have  reached  us,  and  we  have  to 
rest  content  with  what  can  be  learned  of  the  personalities 
of  some  eminent  counsel  and  a  few  fragments  that 
reveal  little  beyond  the  certainly  surprising  fact  that 

^  Tacitus  notes  {Ann.  13.  3)  that  Nero  was  the  first  emperor  who 
had   to  use  speeches  prepared   by   others.     His  account  in   Hist. 
I.  90  (see  p.  iii^")  and  that  of  Suetonius'  Doin.  20  imply  that  Otho 
and  Domitian  felt  the  same  necessitj'. 
128 


ORATORY  129 

even  in  compositions  intended  for  ears  so  philistine 
as  those  of  the  average  Roman  jury  the  pointed  style 
was  de  rigueur.  In  the  case  of  some  of  these  barristers 
we  are  not  certain  whether  or  no  they  pubhshed  their 
speeches  and  so  are  strictly  entitled  to  a  place  in  this 
chapter  of  a  Hterary  history  :  of  these  I  shall  mention 
only  such  as  are  either  named  with  some  frequency 
or  emphasis  in  Hterature  of  our  period,  or  themselves, 
certainly,  the  authors  of  some  literary  work. 

Mamercus  Aemilius  Scaurus,  great-grandson  of  the 
notorious  Scaurus  of  the  Jugurthan  war,  is  often 
mentioned  by  Tacitus,^  and  his  eloquence,  as  he  took 
part  in  the  declamations,  is  described  in  some  detail 
by  the  elder  Seneca. ^  It  was  the  dignified  eloquence 
of  the  Republic,  but  the  man  himself  was  immoral 
and  indolent,  often  postponing  the  study  of  his  brief 
to  the  moment  of  coming  into  court  or  even  robing. 
He  offended  Tiberius  at  the  famous  senate  meeting 
in  which  the  latter  posed  as  unwilling  to  accept  the 
call  to  empire  :  some  twenty  years  later  he  was  accused 
of  various  crimes  against  the  emperor's  life  and  honour 
(some  '  treasonable  hues  '  in  his  play  of  Atreus  being 
raked  up  at  the  same  time  against  him),  and  anticipated 
conviction  by  suicide.^  Seven  published  speeches  of 
his  were  burned  by  order  of  the  senate.^ 

Cneius  Domitius  Afer,  born  at  Nismes,^  was  consul 
in  A.D.  39,  and  died  in  a.d.  59,®  long  after  the  eloquence 
which  had  made  Tiberius  style  him  '  an  orator  in  his 
own  right,'  '  and  had  not  always,  if  we  beheve  Tacitus, 

1  See  especially  Ann.  i.  13,  3.  66,  6.  9  and  29. 

*  Contr.  lo  pr.  2,  3. 

3  Tac.  Ann.  6.  29,  Dio  58.  24.     See  p.  56. 

*  Sen.  I.e.  '  Jerome,  Ad  ann.  Abr.  2062. 

*  Tac.  Ann.  14.  19.     For  his  career  see  Prosop.  Imp.  Rom.  2.  p.  16. 
'  Tac.  Ann.  4.  52  suo  hire  disertum, 

I 


130    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

been  honourably  employed,^  had  become  but  a  wreck. ^ 
Quintilian,  who  as  a  youth  trained  himself  by  observing 
his  conduct  of  cases  for  which  he  was  briefed,  calls 
him  far  the  best  orator  he  has  actually  known. ^  An 
opponent  of  the  modern  style,  he  would  go  out  of  his 
way  to  avoid  the  natural  order  of  words  if  this  would 
produce  one  of  the  rhythmical  cadences  affected  by 
the  fashion  of  the  day.*  He  pubhshed  at  least  one 
speech,  a  treatise  on  witnesses,  and  a  collection  of 
facetiae} 

The  philosopher  Seneca,  whose  success  at  the  bar 
was  sufficient  to  provoke  the  jealousy  of  Caligula, 
pubUshed  speeches — whether  forensic  or  not  there  is 
nothing  to  show.® 

Quintus  Vibius  Crispus  of  Vercelli  '^  is  mentioned 
in  the  Dialogus  as  one  who  has  for  long  enjoyed 
much  influence  from  his  skill  as  a  pleader  and  is 
at  the  moment  in  high  favour  with  Vespasian,  in  the 
Histories  of  Tacitus^  as  one  who  had  played  the  part 
of  a  delator.  Quintilian  finds  in  his  style  the  grace 
and  charm  which   Juvenal  ascribes    to    his  personal 

^  Tac.  I.e.  :   cp.  66. 

*  Quint.  12.  II.  3  :   cp.  Tac.  I.e. 

*  For  Quintilian 's  relation  with  him  see  Inst.  Or.  5.  7.  7,  Plin. 
Ep.  2.  14.  ID  ;   for  his  estimate,  Inst.  Or.  12.  11.  3  (cp.  10.  i.  118). 

*  Quint.  9.  4.  31  solebat  .  .  .  traicere  in  clausiUis  uerba,  tantum 
asperandae  compositionis  gratia  .  .  .  ut  pro  Domitilla  '  gratias  agam 
continuo  '  et  pro  Laelia  '  eis  utrisque  apud  te  iudicem  periclitatiir 
Laelia.'  Interrupted  frequently  by  the  applause  vouchsafed  to  a 
counsel  who  was  pleading  in  a  neighbouring  court,  intermissa  causa, 
'  centumuiri  J  '    inquit  '  hoc  artificium  peril'  (Plin.  Ep.  2.  14.  11). 

*  Quint.  10.  I.  24  [pro  Volusend),  5.  7.  7  [libri  duo  in  hanc  rem 
[testes']  compositi) ,  6.  3.  42  (dictorum  urbane  .  .  .  editi  libri). 

'  Dio  59.  19.  7,  Quint.  10.  i.  129. 

'  Dial.  7  ausim  contendere  Marcellum  Eprium  .  .  .  et  Crispum 
Vibium  non  minus  <illustres>  esse  in  extremis  partibus  terrarum  quam 
Capuae  aut  Vercellis,  ubi  nati  dicuntur.  That  Marcellus  came  from 
Capua  we  know  [Prosop.  Imp.  Rom.  i  p.  415). 

^  2.  10. 


ORATORY  131 

character.^  He  seems  to  have  been  consul  thrice 
and  Hved  to  at  least  eighty. ^  Quintilian  quotes  from 
a  speech  of  his  on  behalf  of  a  woman  named  Spatale, 
and  from  one  dehvered  on  the  other  side  by  Publius 
Galerius  Trachalus,^  whom  he  regards  as  exceptionally 
well  equipped  in  such  externals  as  presence  and  voice. ^ 
This  man  was  consul  with  Sihus  in  a.d.  68,  and  on 
friendly  terms  with  Otho,  whose  imperial  speeches 
he  was  believed  to  inspire.'' 

Three  personae  dramatis  of  the  Dialogus  next  claim 
consideration.  Marcus  Aper  and  Julius  Secundus 
were  of  Gallic  origin,^  and  the  author  represents 
them  as  the  leading  counsel  of  the  early  part  of 
Vespasian's  reign '  and  warm  supporters  of  the 
modem  style.  Julius  was  a  friend  of  Quintilian, 
who  thinks  that  only  an  untimely  death  prevented 
his  becoming  a  really  great  orator  :  as  it  was,  he  lacked 
fire  and  in  his  anxiety  to  be  eloquent  was  apt  to 
forget  the  needs  of  his  client.^  A  third  barrister, 
Vipstanus  Messalla,  was  descended  from  the  famous 
friend    of    Augustus.     Tacitus    has    described    with 

^  Quint.  5.  13.  48  uir  ingenii  iucundi  et  elegantis,  Juv.  4.  81 
Crispi  iucunda  senectus. 

*  For  his  career  see  Prosop.  Imp.  Rom.  3.  p.  420,  for  his  age 
Juv.  I.e. 

3  8.  5.  17  and  19. 

*  10.  I.  119  uocis  quantum  in  nulla  cognoui  felicitas  et  pvonuntiatio 
vel  scents  suffectura  et  decor — omnia  denique  ei  quae  sunt  extra  super- 
fuerunt :  cp.  12.  5.  5  sqq.  and  Tacitus  I.e.  in  next  note. 

*  Tac.  Hist.  I.  90  in  rebus  urbanis  Galerii  Trachali  ingenio 
Othonem  uti  credebatur,  et  erant  qui  genus  ipsum  orandi  noscerent  .  .  . 
ad  implendas  populi  aures  latum  et  sonans. 

«  Dial.  10  :   de  Gallis  nostris  says  Aper,  speaking  for  both. 

'  Dial.  2  celeberrima  turn  ingenia  fori  nostri. 

^  Inst.  Or.  10.  I.  120  lulio  Secundo  si  longior  contigisset  aetas, 
clarissimum  profecto  nomen  oratoris  apud  posteros  foret.  adiecisset 
enim  .  .  .  uirtutibus  suis  quod  desiderari  potest,  id  est  autem,  ut  essei 
multo  magis  pugnans  et  saepius  ad  cur  am  rerum  ah  elocutione  re- 
spiceret :  cp.  3.  12. 


132    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

appreciation  the  appeal  which  he  made  in  the  senate, 
when  his  brother  Regulus  was  attacked  there  for 
having  played  the  part  of  a  delator  under  Nero.* 
Marcus  AquiUus  Regulus  himself  is  painted  by  his 
enemy  the  younger  Pliny  as  a  blackguard  who  was 
not  even  a  good  speaker,  by  his  client  Martial  as  a 
man  of  eloquence  and  high  character. ^  There  is 
reason  to  believe  that  only  the  first  half  of  each  of 
these  accounts  is  reliable.^  He  seems  to  have  died 
about  A.D.  107.*  Contemporary  with  these  men  was 
Quintilian  himself,  who  often  refers  to  his  work  at 
the  bar,  though  he  published  only  one  speech,  and 
apologizes  even  for  this  one  concession  to  '  a  young 
man's  craving  for  renown.'  ^ 

The  fame  which  the  younger  Pliny  describes  Tacitus 
as  already  enjoying  when  he  himself  was  still  a  youth  ^ 
— somewhere  about  a.d.  80 — he  had  presumably 
won  in  the  courts.  He  had,  if  we  may  identify  him 
with  the  author  of  the  Dialogus,  in  his  youth  studied 
Aper  and  Secundus  very  much  as  we  have  seen 
Quintihan  studying  Afer ; '    and  we  find  him  in  one 

^  Hist.  4.  42  :  cp.  3.  9  egregius  et  qui  solus  ad  id  helium  artes  bonas 
attulisset. 

*  See  especially  Plin.  Ep.  i.  5.  i.  suh  quo  (Domitiano)  non  minora 
flagitia  commiserat  quam  sub  Nerone,  sed  tectiora,  14  Regulus  omnium 
bipedum  nequissimus  (as  some  one  called  him  in  a  letter),  4.  7.  5 
(some  said  that  Cato's  definition  of  an  orator,  uir  bonus  dicendi 
peritus,  must  be  changed  in  order  to  fit  him  into  uir  malus,  dicendi 
imperitus)  ;   Mart.  i.  iii.  i,  2;  4.  16.  6,  7. 

*  In  Dial.  15  Aper  speaks  of  the  eloquence  of  him  and  his  brother 
as  notorious,  and  Tac.  Hist.  4.  42  shows  that  he  lay  under  the 
suspicion  of  liaving  been  a  delator. 

*  The  seventh  book  of  Pliny's  correspondence,  the  second  letter 
of  which  refers  to  his  death,  is  generally  assigned  to  this  year. 

*  Quint.  7.  2.  24. 

*  Ep.  7.  20.  4  equidem  adulescentulus  cum  iam  tu  fama  gloriaque 
fioreres. 

'  Dial.  2  quos  non  ego  in  iudiciis  modo  utrosque  studiose  audiebam, 
sed  domi  quoque  et  in  publico  adsectabar,  etc. 


ORATORY  133 

of  Pliny's  letters  himself  the  centre  of  an  appreciative 
student  circle. ^  The  only  case  of  his  about  which  we 
hear  belongs  to  a.d.  100,  when  he  joined  Pliny  in  ihe 
prosecution  of  Marius  Priscus  for  oppressive  conduct 
as  governor  of  Africa,  deHvering  a  speech  which  his 
friend  praises  as  '  full  of  eloquence  and  the  stately 
dignity  which  is  the  pecuhar  virtue  of  his  oratorical 
style.'  2  Pliny  himself,  coming  to  the  bar  at  the  age 
of  nineteen,^  soon  gathered  about  him  a  practice  to 
the  magnitude  of  which  his  letters  bear  abundant 
testimony.  The  centumviral  court,  which  dealt 
mainly  with  questions  of  inheritance,  was,  he  says, 
his  special  '  arena,'  *  but  he  took  part  also  in  criminal 
trials,  several  of  which  were  of  the  same  type  as  that 
of  Marius  mentioned  above.^  The  loss  of  all  his 
pleadings  is  not,  it  need  hardly  be  remarked,  the 
result  of  remissness  on  the  part  of  Phny,  who  not 
only  edited  them  but  made  the  bold  innovation  of 
sandwiching  a  recitatio  stage  betwixt  dehvery  and 
publication.^ 

It  is  indeed  to  PHny  that  we  owe  the  only  speech 
that  has  come  down  to  us  from  this  period,  a  specimen 
of  epideictic,  that  branch  of  oratory  which  appeals 
almost  as  much  to  the  reading  public  as  to  the  audience 
before  whom  it  is  actually  dehvered.  The  commonest 
form  it  took  at  Rome,  in  RepubHcan  times  at  least, 
must  have  been  the  funeral  panegyric  of  the  deceased, 
of  which  we  have  instances  in  Antony's  famous  speech 
over  Caesar's  body  and  the  eulogy  pronounced  by 
Tacitus  as  consul  in  a.d.  97  at  the  obsequies  of  Verginius 

1  Ep.  4.  13.  10  copia  studiosorum  quae  ad  te  ex  admiratione  ingenii 
tui  conuenit. 

*  Ep.  2.  II.  17  respondit  .  .  .  eloquentissime  et,  quod  eximium 
orationi  eius  inest,  o-e/ivwr. 

»  Ep.  5.  8.  8.  *  Ep.  6.  12.  2. 

*  See  Ep.  3.  4  and  9,  4.  9,  5-  20,  7.  6.  «  Ep.  7.  17.  2. 


134    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Rufus.i     Pliny's  Panegyric   (so  entitled  by  the  very 
late  MSS.  in  which  it  is  preserved)  is  simply  a  revised 
version  of  the  speech  in  which,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
entering  upon  the  consulship  for  a  portion   of  the 
year  a.d.  ioo,  he  expressed  to  the  senate  the  gratitude 
with  which  the  emperor's  condescension  had  inspired 
himself  and  his  colleague.     Our  text  runs  to  ninety- 
five  chapters,  and  the  friends  to  whom  PHny  gave  a 
preliminary  reading  had  to  give  him  three  sittings. ^ 
Three  chapters  may  be  classed  as  introductory,  two 
form  the  peroration,  four  convey  the  actual  thanks- 
giving :   the  rest  are  wholly  panegyric.     Pliny  himself 
expresses  the  desire   that   his  performance  shall  be 
judged    by   its    arrangement,    the    transitions    (from 
topic   to   topic),  and   the   figures   of   speech. ^    These 
latter  strike  us  as  overdone,  but  epideictic  compositions 
were   expected   to  luxuriate  in   this   direction.     The 
transitions  are  often  ingenious  and  neat.     As  for  the 
arrangement,  it  does   not    particularly  impress  one. 
First  we  get,  in  twenty  chapters,  a  summary  of  the 
events  of  Trajan's  Ufe,  much  stress  being  laid  on  the 
good    impression    made    by    his    demeanour    during 
the  entry  into  the  city.     The  cue,  '  subsequent  events 
confirmed,  nay,  bettered  our  hopes,'  *  then  introduces 
a   catalogue   of  virtues.     Generosity,   regard   for  the 
corn  supply,  justice  and  literature,  affability,  modera- 
tion in  the  assumption  of  titles  and  offices  follow  in 
succession,     occupying    some    twenty-five    chapters. 
Mention  under  the  last  head  of  Trajan's  unwilHngness 
to  hold  a  third  consulship  ^  leads  to  a  digression  of 

»  Ep.  2.  I.  6.  -  Ep.  3.  18.  4. 

^  Ep.  3.  13.  3  atque  utinam  ordo  saltern  et  transitus  etfigurae  simul 
spectarentur. 

*  24.  I  onerasset  alium  eiusmodi  introitus  :  tu  cotidie  admirahilior 
et  melior.  ^  56.  3. 


ORATORY  135 

about  twenty  chapters  describing  his  successful  ad- 
ministration of  the  office.  After  this  ^  the  catalogue 
starts  afresh,  and  ten  more  chapters  describe  the 
ruler's  clemency,  his  amusements,  and  his  management 
of  his  household.  Then  come  the  actual  thanksgiving 
and  peroration,  in  six  chapters  as  mentioned  above. 

As  a  source  for  the  early  history  of  Trajan — tainted, 
of  course,  by  the  very  principles  upon  which  it  had  to 
be  composed — the  speech  is  of  some  importance.  To 
the  student  of  Latin  literature  the  unusual  combina- 
tion of  Ciceronian  period  with  Silver  point  is  highly 
interesting.  The  following  is  a  fairly  representative 
'  purple  patch  '  : 

It  was  always  Egypt's  boast  that  she  could  give  nurture 
and  increase  to  the  com  seed  without  owing  anything 
to  the  rains  of  heaven.  Regularly  flooded  by  her  own 
river,  fertilized  by  no  water  other  than  that  which  she 
herself  has  carried,  she  would  array  herself  in  harvests  so 
ample  that  she  could  challenge  the  most  fertile  lands  without 
fear  of  ever  suffering  defeat.  And  this  country  an  un- 
expected drought  had  parched  even  unto  the  reproach  of 
barrenness.  Sluggard  Nile  had  left  his  bed  late  and  listless, 
comparable  even  now  with  great  rivers,  but  with  rivers 
only.  A  great  expanse  of  ground  that  had  been  wont  to  be 
covered  and  refreshed  by  its  stream  was  thus  left  white  and 
deep  in  dust.  Vainly  then  did  Egypt  long  for  rain-clouds 
and  bethink  her  of  the  heavens,  now  that  the  author  of  her 
richness,  straitened  and  diminished,  had,  with  the  narrow 
bounds  that  he  had  set  to  his  own  increase,  checked  her 
fertility.  For  it  was  not  merely  that  a  river  which  when 
it  swells  roams  far  afield  had  halted  stockstill  whilst  yet 
short  of  the  higher  ground  it  had  always  reached  before  : 
even  from  the  gentle  slopes  that  should  hold  it  awhile 
had  it  retired,  and  this  not  with  the  quiet,  gradual  ebb  (of 
former  years),  leaving  what  was  not  yet  sufficiently  watered 

*■  At  79.  5  where  the  editors  should  have  begun  a  new  paragraph. 


136   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

to  share  the  fate  of  what  had  remained  dry.  And  so  this 
country,  baulked  of  the  inundation  that  was  fertiUty,  as 
she  had  been  wont  to  appeal  to  her  river  for  aid  appealed 
now  to  Caesar,  and  her  troubles  lasted  but  so  long  as  it  took 
to  send  the  tidings.  So  swift,  Sire,  your  power,  so  evenly 
alert  in  all  directions  and  prompt  your  benevolence,  that 
they  who  in  your  time  meet  with  misfortune  find  that  it 
needs  but  your  knowledge  thereof  for  them  to  receive 
redress  and  salvation.^ 

Pliny's  speech  became  a  model  for  similar  addresses 
to  the  throne,  and  is  in  fact  (if  we  leave  out  of  account 
some  pahmpsest  fragments  of  the  seventh  century) 
preserved  only  as  the  first  of  a  collection  of  such 
things,  the  rest  of  which  belong  to  the  years  289-389, 
and  sometimes  borrow  from  Pliny.  Macrobius' 
reference  to  Pliny's  style  as  rich  and  ornate  ^  must 
be  based  upon  his  reading  of  the  Panegyric,  which, 
after  being  mentioned  or  quoted  by  Salvianus  and 
Sidonius,^  disappears  from  our  ken  until  the  discovery 
by  Aurispa  in  1433  of  a  MS,  of  the  collection.  Since 
then  it  must  have  inspired  a  good  many  kindred 
efforts,  particularly  in  France,  where  it  was  certainly 
well  known. 

^  Pan.  30.  *  Saturnal.  5.  1.  J  pingue  etfioridum. 

»  Saluian.  Gub.  Dei  5.  11.  60,  Sidon.  Ep.  8.  10.  3. 


CHAPTER  VII 
HISTORY.  BIOGRAPHY.  AND  MEMOIRS 

THE  historians  of  our  period  are  curiously  loth 
to  deal  with  any  events  that  fall  outside  the 
comparatively  short  period  which  separates 
them  from,  say,  60  B.C.,  the  year  that  saw  the  coalition 
of  Caesar,  Pompey,  and  Crassus.  No  one,  for  instance, 
took  some  special  portion  of  republican  history,  such 
as  the  conflict  between  the  orders  or  one  of  the  Punic 
wars,  and  gave  a  piquant,  semi-philosophical '  modern  ' 
version  of  it.  Perhaps  it  was  felt  that  Livy  had  so 
marvellously  blended  the  colours  of  Gold  and  Silver 
prose  that  any  one  who  attempted  to  give  a  new 
rendering  of  his  subjects  with  the  somewhat  limited 
palette  of  this  later  age  must  inevitably  appear  at  a 
disadvantage. 

[a)  Writers  before  Tacitus 

Yet  the  narrow  field  these  men  chose  was  even  in 
the  time  of  Horace  by  no  means  free  from  danger.  ^ 
If  Augustus  tolerated  Livy's  partiahty  for  Pompey 
and  respect  for  Brutus  and  Cassius,^  it  was  in  his  reign 
that  the  books  of  the  Pompeian  Labienus,  almost 
certainly  of  a  historical  character,  were  burned  by 
order  of  the  senate  ^ — the  first  instance  of  this  curious 

*  Hor.  Od.  2.  I.  6  periculosae  plenum  opus  aleae. 

^  Tac.  Ann.  4.  34. 

^  Sen.  Contr.  10  pr.  5  sqq.  Montaigne's  remarks  occur  in  the 
eighth  chapter  of  the  second  book  of  the  Essais.  The  works  of 
Cassius  Severus,  which  afterwards  met  the  same  fate  {Suet.  Cal.  16). 

137 


138    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

mode  of  punishment,  against  which  the  elder  Seneca 
and  Montaigne  in  his  wake  have  protested  so  warmly. 
Things  were  likely  to  be  worse  under  Tiberius,  and  in 
the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign  Cremutius  Cordus, 
author  of  a  history  of  the  civil  wars  that  probably 
started  with  the  death  of  Caesar,  was  accused  of  having 
eulogized  Brutus  and  styled  Cassius  '  the  last  of  the 
Romans.'  ^  The  passages  seem  to  have  been  '  read  ' 
in  the  presence  of  Augustus  without  apparently 
offending  his  susceptibilities  :  ^  probably  the  published 
work  contained  other  passages  not  then  read  and 
much  more  offensive.  Suetonius,  describing  how  on 
one  occasion  members  of  the  senate  were  not  admitted 
into  the  presence  of  Augustus  until  they  had  been 
searched,  cites  Cremutius  as  his  authority.^  The 
accused  anticipated  certain  conviction  by  starving 
himself  to  death.  Some  copies  of  his  works,  which 
were  ordered  to  be  burned,  were  preserved  mainly 
by  the  devotion  of  his  daughter  Marcia,*  to  be  restored 
to  circulation,  along  with  those  of  Cassius  and  Labienus, 
by  Caligula.^  Some  extracts  which  the  elder  Seneca 
gives  from  his  account  of  Cicero's  end  and  estimate 
of  his  character  (a  man,  he  said,  remarkable  at  once 
for  the  magnitude  and  the  multitude  of  his  merits)  ^ 

belonged,  I  think,  rather  to  chronique  scandaleuse  than  legitimate 
history. 

^  Tac.  Ann.  4.  34.  The  subject  is  inferred  from  Sen.  Consol.  ad 
Marciam  26.  5,  Dio  57.  24. 

*  Suet.  Tib.  61  scripta  abolita,  quamuis  probarentur  ante  aliquot 
annos  etiam  Augusto  audiente  recitata. 

^  Aug.  35.  *  Dio  57.  24  :    cp.  Tac.  Ann.  4.  35. 

^  Suet.  Cal.  16.  Even  then  they  must  have  been  censored,  if, 
that  is,  the  historian  of  whom  Quintilian  speaks  (10.  i.  104)  as  one 
whose  outspokenness  was  visible  '  even  though  many  of  the  utter- 
ances that  cost  him  dear  have  been  excised  '  was  really  Cremutius. 
The  name,  however,  stands  in  the  text  only  by  virtue  of  a  (highly 
probable)  conjecture. 

*  Suas.  G.  23. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    139 

make  one  wonder  whether  we  should  have  gained 
much  had  the  work  of  this  staunch  repubhcan  been 
preserved  to  us  instead  of  that  of  the  two  obsequious 
royahsts  to  whose  consideration  I  now  turn. 

Gains  VelleiusPaterculus,  aCampanian,  and  descended 
from  the  Decius  Magius  who  opposed  the  surrender 
of  the  city  to  Hannibal, ^  came  of  a  family  of  soldiers  ^ 
and  himself,  after  serving  with  a  commission  in  Thrace, 
Macedon,  and  the  East,  fought  under  Tiberius  in  his 
Danube  and  Rhine  campaigns.^  In  a.d.  14  he  was 
sne  of  the  candidates  recommended  for  the  praetorship 
by  Tiberius,*  whose  panegyric  he  published  sixteen 
years  later,  in  the  form  of  a  history  of  Rome  from  the 
earliest  times,  which,  by  giving  special  prominence 
to  the  characterization  of  the  leading  figures,  ensured 
that  the  reader  should  pass  naturally  and  easily  from 
the  long  gallery  of  portraits  into  the  cabinet  which  he 
had  reserved  for  the  founders  of  the  empire  and  their 
present  representative. 

This  work,  dedicated  to  one  of  the  consuls  of  the 
year,  Vinicius,  who  stood  high  enough  in  the  emperor's 
favour  to  be  chosen  by  him  three  years  later  as  husband 
for  his  grand-daughter  JuHa,^  starts  in  the  form  in 
which  we  have  it  in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  forming 
part  of  an  account  of  the  adventures  that  befel  various 
heroes  after  the  fall  of  Troy.  A  brief  summary  of 
early  Greek  and  Oriental  history  brings  us,  in  Chapter 

^  See  I.  7.  2,  2.  16.  2. 

*  See  2.  115.  I  (brother),  104.  3  (father),  76.  i  (grandfather), 
i6.  2  (great-great-great-grandfather). 

*  For  his  service  see  2.  loi.  2,  104.  3,  iii.  3,  114.  2. 

*  2.  124.  4. 

*  Tac.  Ann.  6.  15.  The  dedicatory  words  have  vanished  in  the 
lacuna  of  which  mention  will  be  presently  made,  but  Velleius  fre- 
quently dates  events  by  the  number  of  years  that  have  intervened 
between  them  and  his  patron's  consulate  :  cp.  e.g.  i.  8.  i  ante  annos 
quam  tu,  M.  Vinici,  consulatum  inires  DCCCXXIII. 


140   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Eight,  to  the  foundation  of  Rome  and  the  administra- 
tive measures  of  Romulus  ;   then,  owing  to  the  loss  of 
numerous  pages  in  some  early  MS.,  we  get  a  sentence 
of  which  the  beginning  refers  to  the  rape  of  the  Sabines, 
and  the  end  to  the  war  with  Perses,  waged  some  600 
years  later.     This  mutilated  Book  One  is  not  a  sixth 
of  the  length  of  Book  Two,  but  carries  us  up  to  the 
fall    of    Carthage    and    Corinth.     Forty    chapters    of 
Book  Two  bring  us  to  Caesar's  consulship  (59  B.C.), 
the  next  sixteen  to  his  assassination  (44  B.C.),  twenty- 
eight  more  to  Actium   (31  B.C.).     Of  the  remaining 
forty-seven   only   eight   are   occupied   by   the   actual 
reign  of  the   hero   Tiberius,   and  two   of   these   are 
reserved   for  the  praises   of   the   infamous    Sejanus, 
an  instance,  Velleius  thinks,  of  the  Roman  tendency 
to  accept  moral  excellence  as  the  equivalent  of  noble 
birth !  1     But    the   fact   is   that    Tiberius'    panegyric 
begins  some  thirty  chapters  back,  with  the   mention 
of  his  introduction  to  pubhc  hfe  in  23   B.C., 2  from 
which  point  the  figure  of  Augustus  is  distinctly  dwarfed 
by  that  of  his  Heutenant.     When  the  latter  retires 
to   Rhodes,   the  world  reahzes  that   Rome  has  lost 
her  guardian  ;    if  he  celebrates  but  three  triumphs, 
it  is  because  he  does  not  care  to  claim  the  seven  that 
are  his  due ;  if  he  counts  only  as  second  in  the  State, 
it  is  because  he  himself  will  have  it  so.^    No  hint  of 
any    strain    between    stepson    and    stepfather :     the 
retirement  to  Rhodes  is  due  to  the  chivalrous  desire 
to  give  the  young  princes.  Gains  and  Lucius,  a  free 
hand,^  and  nothing  could  be  more  touching   (or,  if 

^  128.  I  neque  nouus  hie  mos  senatus  populique  Romani  est  putandi 
quod  optimum  sit  esse  nobilissimus.  2  g^    ^ 

^  100.  I,  122.  I,  99.  I  (ciuium  post  unum,  et  hoc  quia  uolebat, 
eminentissimus) . 

*  99.  2  nefulgor  suus  orientium  iuuenum  obstaret  initiis. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    141 

the  evidence  of  Tacitus  counts  for  aught,  more  im- 
aginative) than  the  death-bed  scene  in  which  Augustus, 
revived  by  the  sight  of  his  dear  Tiberius,  flings  his 
arms  about  him,  begs  him  to  undertake  the  burden  of 
which  he  has  already  borne  part,  feels  that  death  is 
robbed  of  its  terrors,  and  is  duly  '  resolved  into  his 
first  elements  and  in  the  consulship  of  Pompeius  and 
Apuleius  rendered  up  to  heaven  his  immortal 
soul' 1 

The  bathos  involved  by  this  insertion  of  the  cumbrous 
Roman  date  into  the  midst  of  an  ambitious  period 
is  characteristic  of  the  work  of  this  old  colonel,  who, 
without  very  much  equipment  for  the  task,  has  made 
up  his  mind  to  be  one  of  Rome's  styHsts.  How 
anxious  he  is  to  be  recognized  as  no  mere  chronicler 
is  excellently  revealed  by  an  entertaining  passage  in 
his  account  of  Julius  Caesar's  captivity  with  the 
pirates. 2  The  great  man's  demeanour,  he  tells  us, 
was  such  as  to  inspire  these  desperadoes  with  mingled 
fear  and  awe.  '  Never  once,  day  or  night,'  he  begins, 
to  break  off  with  an  apologetic  parenthesis  :  '  Why 
should  one  omit  an  important  fact  just  because  it 
can't  be  described  in  elegant  language  ?  '  The  scientific 
mind  is  apt  to  echo  the  question,  but  Roman  critics 
saw  nothing  ridiculous  in  it  :  they  knew  that  there 
were  certain  '  sordid  '  words  which  were  not  ordinarily 
admitted  into  the  society  of  decent,  literary  prose, 
and  if  anybody,  for  one  reason  or  another,  thought 
fit  to  break  the  rule,  he  had  better  let  people  know 
that  he  was  not  doing  so  through  ignorance.  The 
precaution    duly   taken,  Velleius    acquaints    us    with 

^  123.  2.  in  sua  vesolutus  initia  Pompeio  Apuleioque  consulibus 
septuagesimo  et  sexto  anno  animam  caelesiem  caelo  reddidit. 
*  2.  41.  3. 


142    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

his  guilty  secret — all  that  time  Caesar  never  unbooted 
or  unbelted.^ 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  of  the  characteristic 
features  of  the  Silver  style  are  to  be  found  in  this  first 
extant  specimen  of  post-Augustan  prose.  Many  of 
the  points  are  of  course  hopelessly  puerile,  though 
few  fall  as  low  as  the  comment  on  the  funeral  of  that 
Scipio  who  was  found  dead  in  his  bed  with  marks 
upon  his  throat  that  suggested  strangulation,  so  that 
'  the  body  of  him  that  had  hfted  Rome's  head  above 
the  world  was  carried  out  with  its  own  head  covered.'  ^ 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  epigrams  that  would 
not  disgrace  a  Tacitus,  and  it  is  on  these  I  prefer  to 
dwell — '  The  path  to  which  precedents  gain  admittance 
may  be  narrow  :  they  soon  find  ways  of  roaming 
abroad  '  ;  '  Curio,  a  fellow  that  made  a  fine  art  of 
profligacy  '  ;  '  Vatinius,  whose  mind  seemed  housed 
only  too  appropriately  in  his  body  '  ;  '  Livia,  whose 
influence  no  man  felt  save  to  have  peril  removed  or 
honours  increased.'  ^  The  characterizations,  too, 
exhibit  no  small  degree  of  that  gift  for  psychological 
observation  with  which  reigns  of  terror  compensate 
their  victims.  Those  of  Drusus,  Pompey,  and  Varus  * 
seem  to  me  particularly  worthy  of  notice.  One  feature 
of  Velleius'  style,  and  a  very  unpleasing  one,  is  certainly 
not  characteristic  of  his  age  :  I  mean  his  tendency 
to  indulge  in  enormous  concatenations   {not  periods) 

^  L.c.  neque  umquam  aut  node  aut  die  {cur  enim  quod  uel  maximum 
est,  si  narrari  uerhis  speciosius  non  potest,  omittatur?)  aut  excalceare- 
tur  aut  discingeretur. 

*  2.  4.  6. 

'  2.  3.  4  non  enim  ibi  consistunt  exempla  unde  coeperunt,  sed 
quamlibet  in  tenuem,  recepta  tramitem  latissime  euagandi  sibi  uiam 
faciunt ;  48.  3  homo  ingeniosissime  nequam  ;  69.  4  adeo  ut  animus 
eius  dignissimo  domicilio  inclusus  uideretur;  130.  5  cuius  potentiam 
nemo  sensit  nisi  aut  leuatione  periculi  aut  accessione  dignitatis. 

*  2.  13.  I  ;  29.  2-5  ;   117.  2. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY.  AND  MEMOIRS    143 

produced  by  the  simple  device  of  stringing  together 
clauses  that  have  Uttle  or  no  connexion  with  each 
other  and  mixing  therewith  a  few  parentheses  (whose 
function  is  often  enough  simply  that  of  conveying 
information  that  was  omitted  in  its  proper  place). 
I  venture  to  give  a  hteral  version  of  one  of  these 
curiosities  of  literary  eczema. 

Caesar,  scion  of  the  noble  Julian  house,  descendant  (as  all 
antiquarians  agree)  of  Anchises  and  Venus  .  .  .  one  whose 
soul  rose  above  the  limits  of  man's  nature,  and  indeed  his 
powers  of  belief,  one  who  in  breadth  of  imagination,  rapidity 
of  strategy,  and  indifference  to  danger  reminds  us  most 
of  Alexander — but  an  Alexander  neither  drunken  nor 
passionate,  one  who  ever  made  of  food  and  sleep  a  means 
to  existence,  not  enjoyment,  as  a  blood-relation  of  Marius 
and  son-in-law  to  Cinna  (whose  daughter  no  threats  could 
induce  him  to  divorce,  though  a  Piso,  who  had  been  consul, 
out  of  consideration  for  Sulla,  put  away  Annia,  a  former  wife 
of  Cinna's — and  Caesar  was  about  eighteen  when  Sulla 
became  dictator),  finding  that  not  so  much  Sulla  himself  as 
Sulla's  underhngs  and  adherents  were  hunting  for  him 
in  order  to  slay  him,  put  on  as  a  disguise  garments  ill-suited 
to  his  rank  and  escaped  under  cover  of  night  from  Rome.^ 

These  sentences  are  the  outcome,  not  of  slovenliness, 
but  of  misapplied  ingenuity.  They  have,  in  fact,  some- 
thing in  common  with  the  metrical  irregularities  wliich 
Ovid  admits  into  his  later  elegiacs.  The  exile  of 
Tomi  wishes  his  reader  to  infer  from  these  blemishes 
the  extent  to  which  his  sojourn  in  outlandish  regions 
is  demorahzing  his  genius  :  Velleius  means  to  remind 
us  that  he  is  giving  a  sort  of  prose  silva,  a  hasty 
sketch  the  momentum  of  which,  as  he  once  definitely 
states,  '  hke  some  whirhng  wheel  or  downward  rush- 
ing swirl  of  current '  permits  not  a  moment's  pause,^ 

*  2.  41.  I,  2. 

*  I.  16.  I  in  hac  tarn  pvaecipiti  festinatione  quae  me  rotae  proniue 
gurgitis  ac  uerticis  modo  nusquam  patitur  consistere. 


144   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

and  some  of  the  deficiencies  of  which  will  be  made 
good  in  the  more  substantial  work  which  he  often 
promises  to  write. ^     Such  a  programme  may  induce 
us  to  overlook  his  cavaHer  treatment  of  constitutional 
points,  his  disHke  for  descriptions  of  campaigns  and 
battles,  his  silence  as  to  divergency  of  accounts,  his 
general  inadequacy  on  various    matters  which   even 
the  ancients  regarded  as  belonging  to  the  province 
of  the  historian  ;    it  affords  no  excuse  for  the  lack 
of  proportion  that  gives  eight  hnes  to  the  suppression 
of  the  pretender  in  Macedon  by  Metellus,  and  twenty- 
three  to  the  description  of  a  colonnade  erected  by  that 
general,  of  a  group  of  statuary  that  he  placed  therein, 
and  of  the  wonderful  felicity  which  he  enjoyed,  that  finds 
room,  in  an  account  of  the  death  of  Tiberius  Gracchus, 
in  which  not  a  word  is  said  of  the  senate's  activity, ^ 
to  note  that  the  Opimius  who  crushed  the  revolution- 
ary party  is  the  man  who  gave  his  name  to  a  famous 
vintage,  of  which,  as  this  all  happened  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago,  there  can  be  no  bottles  now  surviving.^ 
There  are  longer  digressions  than  this,  and,  in  particular, 
two  on  the  colonies  and  provinces  of  Rome  (occupying 
each  a  couple  of  chapters  ^)   and  three  on  Hterary 
questions.     In  the  first  of  these  ^  Velleius  takes  stock 
of  the  chief  writers  and  orators  of  a  period  that  extends, 
roughly,  from  the  days  of  Scipio  the  younger  to  the 
civil  wars  of  Sulla  and  Marius ;  in  the  second,  he  does 
the  same  for  one  that  represents  the  combination  of  the 
Ciceronian  and  Augustan  ages.®    Out  of  place  though 

1  2.  48.  5, 96.  3, 99.  3- 

*  I.  II.  1,2. 

'  2.  7.  5  hie  est  Opimius  a  quo  consule  celeberrimuni  Opimiani  uini 
nomen — quod  iani  nullum  esse  spatio  annorum  colligi  potest. 

*  I.  14  and  15,  2.  38  and  39. 

^  2.  9.  *  2.  36. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    145 

such  things  may  be  in  what  purports  to  be  a  mere 
outUne,  we  cannot  but  welcome  the  spirit  prompting 
their  compilation,  regrettable  though  it  be  that  the 
colonel,  misled  doubtless  by  what  he  heard  in  court 
circles,  omits  Horace  and  couples  with  the  name  of  the 
author  of  the  Aeneid  the  very  minor  poet  Rabirius.^ 
Each  of  these  pieces  occupies  a  chapter ;  the  third 
extends  over  two,  and  is  so  exceptionally  interesting 
that  I  feel  bound  to  give  a  version  of  it  : 

I  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  state  here  a  problem 
which  I  have  often  pondered,  without  ever  succeeding  in 
clearing  it  up.  Can  we  sufficiently  express  the  strangeness 
of  the  fact  that  in  each  branch  {of  literature  or  art)  the 
leading  intellects  have  taken  the  same  cast  and  foregathered 
in  the  same  brief  period  ?  That,  just  as  animals  of  vari- 
ous kinds,  when  shut  up  together  in  a  cage  or  enclosure, 
nevertheless  gather  in  groups,  each  standing  aloof  from 
members  of  another  species,  so  the  men  of  genius  in  any 
particular  one  of  the  great  arts  are  distinguished  from  its 
other  votaries  by  the  fact  that  they  are  roughly  of  the  same 
date  and  roughly  of  the  same  excellence.  The  period  of  a 
human  life — and  no  long  one  either — saw  tragedy  become 
brilliant  through  men  of  more  than  mortal  genius,  Aeschylus, 
Sophocles,  and  Euripides ;  another  such  period  did  the  same 
for  the  Old  Comedy,  under  the  hands  of  Cratinus,  Aristo- 
phanes, and  Eupolis.  Menander,  with  Philemon  and 
Diphilus  (as  close  to  him  in  workmanship  as  they  were  in 
date),  produced  the  New  Comedy  and  left  it  perfect  beyond 
all  possibility  of  imitation,  all  within  the  space  of  a  very  few 
years.  The  philosophers  again,  whose  stream  descends  from 
the  lips  of  Socrates,  and  whose  names  I  enumerated  just 
now,  how  long  after  the  death  of  Plato  and  Aristotle 
did  they  flourish  ?  What  great  name  is  there  in  eloquence 
before  Isocrates  or  after  his  pupils  and  theirs  ?  So  narrow 
the  period  here  that  every  one  that  merits  mention  might 
have  seen  or  been  seen  by  his  fellows. 

^  L.c.  §  3  inter  quae  niaxime  noitri  aeui  eminent  princeps  carminum 
Vergilius  Rabiriusque. 

K 


146   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

And  this  holds  good  for  Rome  as  much  as  Greece.  Unless 
you  go  back  to  rough,  tyro  performances,  praiseworthy 
only  as  pioneer  work,  Roman  tragedy  means  Accius  and 
his  contemporaries,  and  the  brilliant  period  of  the  pleasant 
humour  of  Latin  comedy  was  due  to  Caecilius,  Terence, 
and  Afranius — all  of  about  the  same  age.  So  with  the 
historians  :  reckon  Livy  to  the  age  preceding  ours,  and 
(apart  from  Cato  and  some  early  and  little-known  writers) 
they  are  the  outcome  of  barely  eighty  years — and  the 
productive  period  of  poetry  goes  back  no  earlier  and  comes 
down  no  later.  As  for  the  eloquence  of  statesman  or 
barrister,  the  perfect  form  of  prose  expression,  I  maintain, 
with  apologies  to  Crassus,  Scipio,  Laelius,  the  Gracchi, 
Fannius,  and  Galba,  that,  leaving  Cato  again  out  of  the 
reckoning,  the  time  of  general  efflorescence  is  that  of  its 
chief  representative  Cicero.  Very  few  of  his  predecessors 
give  pleasure,  and  there  is  not  an  orator  who  deserves 
respect  but  what  either  he  may  have  seen  Cicero  or  Cicero 
him.  And  any  one  who  studies  chronology  will  find 
the  same  thing  appHes  to  grammar,  sculpture,  and  paint- 
ing :  the  best  period  of  each  art  is  comprised  within  very 
narrow  limits  of  time. 

I  often  try  to  find  reasons  for  this  phenomenon  .  .  .  but 
find  none  in  whose  correctness  I  feel  confidence,  some  that 
are  perhaps  probable,  and,  in  particular,  these.  Emulation 
it  is  that  encourages  talent :  sometimes  envy,  sometimes 
admiration,  fires  the  desire  to  imitate.  Now  Nature  or- 
dains that  that  which  is  the  object  of  the  highest  endeavour 
shall  reach  the  highest  level ;  perfection  is  not  easily 
maintained,  and  it  is  a  law  of  Nature  that  what  cannot 
go  forward  must  go  back.  At  the  outset  we  are  hot  to 
catch  up  those  we  reckon  ahead  of  us,  but,  once  we  abandon 
hope  of  passing  or  equalling  them,  with  our  hope  dies  our 
interest :  it  ceases  to  aim  at  a  goal  it  can  never  attain, 
regards  this  particular  province  as  now  appropriated,  and 
looks  round  for  a  new  one.^ 

Velleius  seems  to  have  shared  the  ill  fame  of  his 
hero.     He    is    occasionally    cited    by    scholiasts    and 

*  I.  16.  17. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    147 

grammarians,  and  was  to  some  extent  imitated  by 
Sulpicius  Severus.  His  work  must  have  been  very 
rare  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  men  hke  John  of  Salisbury 
and  Petrarch  show  no  acquaintance  with  it.  In  1515 
the  Tacitus  scholar  Beatus  Rhenanus  discovered  a  MS. 
in  the  Abbey  of  Murbach,  from  a  copy  of  which  he 
five  years  later  produced  the  editio  princeps.  Both 
MSS.  are  lost,  and  the  only  one  now  known  to  be  in 
existence  is  a  copy  of  Beatus'  copy.  Even  after  he 
is  printed,  Velleius  is  seldom  quoted.  Ascham  cites 
his  verdict  upon  Cicero,^  Chapman  his  reference  to 
Homer ;  ^  Temple's  recognition  of  him  as  '  the  last 
strain  of  the  height  and  purity  of  Roman  style  '  must 
have  amused  Bentley,  though  even  Johnson  once 
classes  him  with  authors  of  '  the  purest  ages.'  De 
Quincey,  Goethe,  and  Ste.  Beuve  appreciate  the 
excursus  which  I  have  translated,  and  Macaulay 
allows  that  the  work  is  skilfully  constructed.  To  the 
scientific  historian  it  is  of  course  anathema. 

With  VeUeius  must  be  coupled  Valerius  Maximus, 
who  accompanied  his  patron  Sextus  Pompeius,  friend 
of  Ovid  and  consul  in  a.d.  14,^  when  he  proceeded  as 
governor  to  Asia  about  a.d.  27,'*  and  who  pubHshed, 
under  Tiberius,  at  some  time  later  than  the  fall  of 
Sejanus  in  a.d.  31,^  a  collection  of  exempla  or  historical 
illustrations  for  the  use  of  authors  and  orators,  com- 
piled, the  preface  says,  from  the  very  best  authorities. 
The  Noteworthy  Doings  and  Sayings  comprises  nine 
books  ;  much  of  the  first  has  reached  us  only  in 
abridged  texts,   the   common   ancestor  of  our  MSS. 

1  Veil.  2.  66.  5.  2  Veil.  i.  5.  2. 

^  Ov.  Pont.  4.  I,  4,  5  and  16  are  addressed  to  Pompeius,  for  whose 
career  see  Prosop.  Imp.  Rom.  3,  p.  64. 
*  Val.  Max.  2.  6.  8. 
'  The  attack  on  his  memory  in  9.  11  Ext.  4  proves  this. 


148    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

of  the  work  itself  having  sustained  serious  damage  in 
this  portion.  Each  book  is  divided  into  sections,  of 
which  there  are  ninety-five  in  all,  each  with  a  special 
heading.  Book  One,  orthodoxly  enough,  is  concerned 
with  matters  religious  and  divine,  portents,  dreams, 
and  miracles,  Book  Two  mainly  with  old  institutions 
and  constitutional  lore.  After  that,  connexion  between 
neighbouring  sections  is  only  occasional,  as,  for  example, 
in  Book  Nine,  which  starts  with  eleven  sections  dealing 
with  various  vices,  and  ends  up  with  '  remarkable 
likenesses '  and  '  fraudulent  attempts  to  claim  con- 
nexion with  illustrious  famihes.'  Within  the  sections 
non-Roman  anecdotes  are  reserved  to  the  end,  but 
not  every  section  has  these. 

There  can  be  few  books  that  illustrate  more  clearly 
the  vast  difference  between  modern  and  ancient 
practice  as  regards  the  naming  of  sources.  Whence 
the  Greek  lore  comes  is  uncertain,  but  most  of  the 
Roman  anecdotes  come  unquestionably  from  Cicero, 
Livy,  and  Sallust.  Yet  in  the  twenty-six  passages 
in  which  an  authority  is  named,  no  one  is  mentioned 
twice  except  Theopompus,^  Sallust  not  at  all.  Ten 
of  these  citations  occurring  within  the  space  of  a  single 
section, 2  one  can  hardly  doubt  that  Valerius  has  not 
specially  consulted  the  authorities  concerned,  but 
simply  taken  them  over  from  his  immediate  source. 
Varro,  Nepos,  and  Hyginus  probably  supplied  him  with 
much  material,  but  only  the  first  of  them  is  ever 
cited. ^  For  one  incident,  the  suicide  of  a  lady  in  the 
island  of  Ceos,  he  himself  vouches  as  an  eyewitness.* 

The  style  of  Valerius  in  the  narratives  somewhat 
resembles  that  of  the  elder  Seneca  ;  in  the  introductions 

1  8.  13.  Ext.  5,  14  Ext.  5.  *  8.  13  Ext. 

*  3.  2.  24.  *  2.  6.  8. 


HISTORY.  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS     149 

and  moralizing  passages  with  which  he  loves  to  wind 
up  an  anecdote  or  a  section,  it  is  heavy  and  pompous 
almost  to  obscurity.  The  points  are  mostly  obvious 
and  feeble,  whilst  one  soon  wearies  of  such  efforts  to 
provide  graceful  transition  from  one  story  to  another 
as  '  One  is  loth  to  leave  Publicola,  but  glad  to  reach 
Camillus,'  '  Spain  thus  testifies  to  Scipio's  self-control, 
Epirus,  Achaea,  the  Cyclades  to  that  of  Cato,'  '  An 
episode  that  of  olden  time,  this  of  ours.'  ^  The  flattery 
of  Tiberius  is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  preface ; 
as  already  noted, ^  we  are  spared  the  praises  of  Sejanus, 
who  is  attacked  with  a  bitterness  that  might  serve 
as  commentary  to  Juvenal's  famous  picture  of  his 
fall. 

Valerius  is  named  as  a  source  by  Pliny  and  (rare 
honour  for  a  Roman)  the  Greek  Plutarch,  Gellius 
borrows  an  anecdote  (with  acknowledgment  of  the 
source),  and  Lactantius  in  his  Institutiones  owes 
him  a  good  deal.^  The  abridgments  by  Paris  and 
Neoptolemus  are  generally  assigned  to  the  fourth  cen- 
tury, the  two  chief  MSS.  to  the  ninth,  when  the  learned 
abbot  Servatus  Lupus  did  much  for  the  text.  During 
the  Middle  Ages  and  Renaissance  the  vogue  of  Valerius 
is  equalled  perhaps  only  by  Cicero  and  Seneca  among 
prose  writers.  The  legend  of  the  Good  Daughter 
(one  of  Rubens'  favourite  subjects)  is  told  from  him  * 
in  the  Gesta  Romanorum,  Petrarch  derived  from  him 
the  plan  of  his  Res  Memorandae,  but  rebukes  one  of  his 
correspondents  for  styhng  him  '  first  of  moral  writers.'  ^ 
Chaucer  names  and  uses  him,  especially  in  the  Wife 

1  4.  I.  2,  3.  2;  5.  5.  3.  "  See  p.  147. 

'  See  the  indices  to  Nat.  Hist,  y  and  33  ;  Plut.  Marcell.  30,  Brut. 
53  ;  Gell.  12.  7.  8;  for  Lactantius  see  Kempf's  edition  of  Valerius, 

P-  45- 

*  5.  4.  E.xt.  I.  *  Epist  de  reb.  Jam.  4.  15. 


150   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

of  Bath  items,  Rabelais  uses  the  section  on  strange 
deaths,  Elyot  translates  several  anecdotes  in  the 
Governour,  Montaigne  tells,  without  naming  his  source, 
the  story  of  the  Cean  lady.^ 

Aufidius  Bassus,  possibly  the  same  as  the  man  of 
advanced  years  described  by  Seneca  in  a  letter  written 
about  A.D.  65,2  published  at  least  part  of  his  history 
before  the  death  of  Seneca's  father,  who  quotes  his 
account  of  the  end  of  Cicero.^  The  work  to  which  the 
elder  Pliny  wrote  a  continuation  and  Cassiodorus 
had  recourse  in  the  sixth  century  has  not  reached  us.* 
If  Seneca's  quotation  came  from  it,  it  must  obviously 
have  gone  back  as  far  as  43  B.C.  Where  it  ended  is 
quite  uncertain,  for  Phny's  continuation  is  lost. 
But  it  can  hardly  have  ended  with  the  death  of  an 
emperor,  or  that  writer  would  surely  have  entitled 
his  work  '  From  the  death  of  such  and  such  an  emperor,' 
and  not  *  From  the  conclusion  of  Aufidius  Bassus.' 
QuintiHan  approves  of  Bassus  '^  as  a  stylist,  and  notes 
that  he  upheld  the  dignity  of  history  '  especially  in  his 
German  War.'  This  must  have  been  quite  a  distinct 
work  from  that  which  Pliny  continued  :  the  part 
which  Tiberius  and  Drusus  must  have  played  in  it 
would  make  it  an  equally  acceptable  offering  for  the 
former  himself,  or  the  latter's  grandson  Caligula,  or 
his  son  Claudius. 

The  elder  Seneca  wrote  a  history  that  started  with 

1  Essais  2.  3.  ^  30.  I. 

*  Suas.  6.  18  Cicero,  paulum  renioto  uelo  posiquam  armatos  uidit, 
'  ego  uero  consisto  '  ait  :  '  accede,  ueterane,  et  si  hoc  saltern  poies 
recte  facere,  incide  ceruicetn.'  trementi  deinde  dubitanfique  '  Quid 
si  ad  me  '  inquit  '  primum  uenissetis  ?  ' 

*  For  Pliny  see  p.  i6o  ;  Cassiodorus  mentions  the  book  as  a 
source  for  his  Chronica. 

^  Quint.  10.  I.  103  quam  (historiae  auctovitatem)  Bassus  Aufidius 
egregie,  utique  in  libris  belli  Germanici,  praestitit. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    151 

the  beginning  of  the  civil  wars  and  came  down  to  a 
period  not  long  preceding  his  death. ^  From  it,  no 
doubt,  comes  the  account  of  the  death  of  Tiberius 
for  which  Suetonius  ^  cites  the  authority  of  a  Seneca  : 

Realizing  that  he  was  failing  he  took  off  his  signet-ring, 
as  though  intending  to  deUver  it  over  to  somebody,  but 
after  holding  it  awhile  he  set  it  back  on  his  finger  and  lay 
there  a  long  time  perfectly  still,  with  his  left  hand  clenched. 
Then  he  suddenly  called  to  his  attendants  and,  receiving 
no  answer,  got  out  of  bed,  but  had  not  gone  far  when  his 
strength  failed  him  and  he  collapsed. 

— a  version  more  Ukely  to  be  current  in  official  circles 
under  Cahgula  than  that  which  Tacitus  has  given 
us  !  ^ 

The  Emperor  Claudius  continued,  after  his  accession 
to  the  purple,  those  activities  as  a  historian  to  which 
Livy  had  impelled  him  in  youth.  When  the  great 
work  in  forty-one  books,  starting  with  the  end  of  the 
civil  wars,  was  published,  it  is  impossible  to  say  : 
Suetonius  imphes  that  he  began  it  not  long  after  he 
had  written  two  books  of  a  history  beginning  with 
the  death  of  Caesar,  which  he  then  abandoned,  the 
protests  of  his  grandmother  Livia  and  his  mother 
Antonia,  daughter  of  Antonius  and  Octavia,  having 
convinced  him  of  the  inadvisability  of  attempting  to 
tread  such  dangerous  ground.*  Livia  died  in  a.d.  29, 
so  that  this  work  must  have  belonged  to  the  period 
between  that  year  and  the  death  of  Augustus  in  a.d.  14. 

^  So  we  are  informed  by  a  fragment  of  the  biography  which  his 
son  wrote  (Peter,  Hist.  Rom.  Fragm.  p.  292). 

2  Tib.  73.  3  jinn^  5.  ^o. 

*  Suet.  Claud.  41  initium  sumpsit  historiae  post  caedem  Caesaris 
dictatoris,  sed  et  transiit  ad  inferiora  tempora  coepitque  a  pace  ciuili, 
cum  sentiret  neque  libere  neque  uere  sibi  de  superioribus  tradendi 
potestatem  reltctam,  correptus  saepe  et  a  matre  et  ab  atiia.  prions 
materiae  duo  uolumina,  posterioris  unum  et  quadraginta  reliquit. 


152    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

The  first  recitatio  given  by  this  imperial  historian 
proved  a  failure,  partly  from  bad  luck,  but  partly 
through  his  own  incorrigible  levity  of  character. 
During  the  performance,  which  was  attended  by  a 
large  company,  '  some  one's  fatness,'  as  Suetonius 
crudely  puts  it,  caused  some  benches  to  collapse. 
A  scene  of  general  merriment  ensued,  and  even  when 
this  had  subsided,  the  prince  kept  interrupting  his 
reading  with  bursts  of  laughter,  and,  naturally,  found 
some  difficulty  in  getting  his  audience  to  hear  him 
out.i  The  elder  PHny  and  Suetonius  both  cite  his 
historical  writings,^  but  none  of  them  has  reached  us. 

To  Claudius'  reign  probably  belongs  the  History  of 
A  lexander  of  Quintus  Curtius  Ruf us.  It  is  undoubtedly 
a  Silver  production,  but  there  is  a  certain  restraint 
and  simpHcity  about  its  style  that  suggests  composition 
under  either  Claudius  or  Vespasian.  Either  of  these 
might  conceivably  be  the  emperor  who  saved  Rome 
in  a  stormy  hour,  of  which  Curtius  is  reminded  by 
the  scene  of  confusion  that  followed  upon  Alexander's 
death,  and  who,  he  declares, 

rose  like  some  new  star  of  the  night  that  was  so  nearly 
our  last,  whose  coming,  not  the  sun's,  it  surely  was  that 
brought  light  to  a  dark,  bewildered  {caliganti)  world,  whose 
parts  had,  with  their  head,  lost  all  purpose,  all  harmony  ;  ^ 

but  these  words  surely  tally  best  with  Suetonius' 
picture  of  the  scenes  that  followed  the  assassination 
of  Gains,  with  its  wavering  praetorians  and  vacillating 
senate,*  nor  is  the  suggestion  that  the  word  caliganti 
is  chosen  with  some  reference  to  the  emperor's  surname 

1  Suet.  I.e.  '  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  12.  78;  Suet.  Claud.  21. 

'  10.  9.  3  qui  noctis  quam  paene  supremam  habuimus  nouum  sidus 
inluxit.  {4)  huius  hercule,  non  solis  ortus  lucem  caliganti  reddidit 
mtindo,  cum  sine  suo  capite  discordia  membra  trepidarent. 

*  Suet.  Claud.  10. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    153 

Caligula  an  entirely  wild  one.  Of  course,  if  the  Curtius 
Rufus  whom  Suetonius  names  among  the  rhetors 
is  our  historian,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  flourished 
before  Vespasian  became  emperor,  for  Suetonius' 
list,  which  is  chronological,  places  him  between  the 
teachers  of  Ovid  and  Persius.^ 

Certainly,  of  all  rhetorical  histories  that  have 
reached  us,  this  is  the  most  rhetorical.  Curtius  has 
definitely  turned  his  back  on  the  sober  and  rehable 
accounts  of  Alexander  which  were  at  his  disposal,  two 
of  them  compiled  by  the  Macedonian's  own  generals, 
Ptolemy  and  Aristobulus,  to  follow  the  methods  of 
Clitarchus,  whose  notoriously  imaginative  work  was 
more  romance  than  history.  The  likeness  between  this 
man's  standpoint  and  that  of  Curtius  comes  out  clearly 
in  the  attraction  both  feel  for  the  romantic  episode 
of  their  hero's  sojourn  with  the  Amazon  queen,  which 
was  ridiculed  by  the  two  soldiers. ^  On  both  the 
occasions  when  Curtius  condescends  to  mention 
authorities,^  he  names  CHtarchus,  but  CUtarchus 
was  certainly  not  his  only  source,  as  in  one  of  the 
passages  he  quotes  Timagenes,  a  writer  of  the  Augustan 
age,  whose  views  he  cannot  have  found  recorded  in 
the  fourth-century  historian.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  quite  possible  that  he  never  read  CHtarchus  at  all, 
nor  Ptolemy  (whom  he  quotes  in  this  same  passage), 
but  simply  reproduced  the  statements  which  he 
found  ascribed  to  them  in  Timagenes.  We  have 
already  seen  Valerius  Maximus  doing  this  kind  of  thing, 
and  we  shall  presently  see  that  the  elder  Phny's  ideas 

»  De  Rhet.  9. 

*  Curt.  6.  5.  24  sqq.     Plutarch  {Alex.  46)  says  that  CUtarchus  had 
the  story,  which  Ptolemy  and  Aristobulus  stigmatized  as  an  invention. 

*  9.    5.   21    (where  Ptolemy  and  Timagenes  are    also    named), 
9-8.  15. 


154   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

of  morality  were  no  higher.  ^  But  one  must  admit 
that  the  evidence  is  not  convincing  against  Curtius, 
and  I  much  prefer  to  beHeve  that  he  read  over  various 
accounts  and  selected  from  them  whatever  he  thought 
most  susceptible  of  the  kind  of  treatment  in  which 
he  excels,  anticipated,  in  fact,'  the  methods  generally 
adopted  by  modern  writers  of  the  historical  novel. 
Very  characteristic  is  the  passage  which  describes  the 
meeting  of  Alexander  with  a  train  of  Greeks  who  have 
been  held  captive  for  many  years  and  subjected  to 
horrible  mutilations  at  Persepohs.^  The  episode  is 
wholly  ignored  by  Arrian,  and  only  sketched  by 
Diodorus  and  Justin  :  it  perhaps  reminded  Curtius 
of  one  of  the  declamations,  the  fourth  of  Seneca's 
tenth  book,  which  has  for  theme  the  fate  of  children 
who,  abandoned  by  their  parents,  were  picked  up 
by  speculators,  maimed,  and  sent  out  to  beg,  it  being 
understood  that  they  must  bring  back  a  certain 
sum  '  to  defray  the  expense  of  their  keep.'  Anyhow, 
the  speeches  dehvered  by  two  of  the  unfortunates 
at  a  meeting  called  to  decide  the  form  which  their 
appeal  to  Alexander  shall  take,  with  their  development 
of  the  arguments  for  and  against  the  return  to  Greece,' 
are  strongly  reminiscent  of  the  schools.  Another 
speech,  that  with  which  the  Scythian  ambassadors 
address  Alexander  in  Book  Seven,  is  simply  one  of 
those  popular  diatribes  on  a  philosophic  theme  which 
Seneca  tells  us  some  declaimers  loved  to  introduce  into 
their  speeches : 

Knowest  thou  not  that  great  trees  are  long  growing, 
but  are  uprooted  in  an  hour  ?     He  that  thinks  of  their  fruit 

^  See  pp.  148,  304. 

"  5-  5-  5  s??.  :  cp.  Diod.  17.  69,  Justin,  11.  14.  11. 

'  §§  10-16,  17-20. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    155 

and  gauges  not  their  height  is  a  fool.  Look  to  it  lest,  in  thy 
efforts  to  reach  the  summit,  thou  fall  with  the  very  branches 
that  thou  hast  grasped.  The  Hon  too,  ere  now,  hath  been 
the  meat  of  tiny  birds,  and  rust  eateth  iron  :  nought  so 
strong  but  it  may  be  in  danger  from  even  a  puny  thing.  .  .  . 
Why,  thou  that  vauntest  thou  art  come  to  punish  brigands 
hast  thyself  played  brigand  unto  all  the  peoples  thou  hast 
visited.  Thou  hast  taken  Lydia  and  seized  Syria,  thou 
holdest  Persia  and  hast  the  Bactrians  in  thrall ;  to  India 
hast  thou  fared  and  art  now  stretching  forth  hands  greedy 
and  insatiable  upon  our  herds.  What  use  in  riches  that 
constrain  thee  to  go  fasting  ?  Thou  art  the  first  that  hath 
got  hunger  out  of  repletion,  the  more  thou  hast,  craving  the 
more  fiercely  what  thou  hast  not.  Doth  it  never  strike 
thee  how  long  thou  hast  been  boggling  over  Bactra,  and 
whilst  thou  art  conquering  them,  the  Sogdiani  have  begun 
war.  War  is  the  fruit  that  victory  bears  thee.  .  .  .  Such 
as  thou  hast  not  warred  on,  thou  wilt  be  able  to  make  good 
friends  of  them.  For  betwixt  equals  is  friendship  most 
staunch,  and  such  as  have  not  yet  made  trial  of  each  other's 
strength  are  looked  upon  as  equals.  But  those  thou  hast 
conquered,  never  deem  them  friends  :  betwixt  master  and 
slave  there  can  be  no  friendship ;  even  in  time  of  peace,  the 
footing  will  be  that  of  war.  Think  not  that  Scythians 
confirm  their  goodwill  with  an  oath  :  their  oath  is — to 
keep  faith.  .  .  .  'Tis  they  that  respect  not  men  that  break 
faith  with  the  gods.  And  what  use  is  there  in  a  friend  of 
whose  well-wishing  thou  art  not  sure  ?  ^ 

As  a  novehst,  Curtius  is  handicapped  by  his  inability 
to  draw  character  :  his  kings  and  queens  and  warriors 
are  the  puppet  figures  of  the  declamation  and  Senecan 
tragedy.  But  he  has  charm,  and  is,  as  has  been  said 
already,  comparatively  free  from  extravagance  and 
mannerism  :  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  author 
of  our  period  who  lends  himself  so  well  to  anything 
like  continuous  reading.  Admiration  for  Livy  leads 
him  to  echo  that  writer's  turns  and  phrases,  but  he  is 

'  7.  8.  14  sqq. 


156    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

proof  against  the  seduction  of  his  high-built  periods, 
having  himself  discovered  the  secret  of  a  sentence  that 
is  brief  without  being  staccato.  To  some  extent 
one  may  regard  his  book  as  the  forerunner  of  the 
novel  with  a  purpose  :  as  Seneca  and  the  Stoics  in 
general  have  seen  in  Alexander  the  type  of  the  man 
who  conquers  the  world  but  is  slave  of  his  own  passions, 
so  more  than  once  Curtius  seems  to  invite  us  to  note 
the  effect  of  little  deserved  prosperity  upon  a  character 
naturally  generous,  but  bereft  of  that  strength  which 
only  philosophic  training  can  impart.^ 

Oddly  enough,  Seneca  is  the  only  classical  writer 
who  shows  anything  that  looks  like  reminiscence  of 
Curtius. 2  And  Suetonius,  if  indeed  his  Curtius  is  ours, 
is  the  only  one  who  mentions  him.  The  fact  that 
Quintilian  ignores  him,  which  has  led  some  (and 
Gibbon  among  them)  to  believe  that  he  cannot  have 
written  under  Claudius,  is  of  no  great  importance. 
The  professor  does  not  mention  the  universal  history 
of  Trogus  :  it  is  even  possible  that  he  omits  Curtius, 
as  he  omits  Petronius,  as  a  writer  of  romance.  Traces 
of  our  author  begin  to  appear  in  the  time  of 
Charlemagne  when  Einhart  copies  him,  and  the  earliest 
of  our  MSS.  were  written.  Unfortunately,  the  first 
two  books  have  been  lost,  and  there  are  other  gaps. 

^  Cp.  4.  6.  29  ira  deinde  uerttt  in  rabiem,  tarn  turn  peregrinos  ritus 
noua  subeunte  foriuna,  9.  10.  24  animo  super  humanum  fastigium 
elato,  10.  5.  26  iuste  aestimantibus  regem  liquet  bona  naturae  eius 
fuisse,  uitia  uel  fortunae  uel  aetatis. 

^  Cp.  7.  I.  4  prudens  otii  uitia  negotio  discuti  with  Sen.  Ep.  56.  9 
nihil  tarn  certum  est  quam  otii  uitia  negotio  discuti,  7.  3.  5  nationem 
ne  finitimis  quidem  satis  notam  with  Ep.  59.  12  gentes  ne  finitimis 
quidem  satis  notas,  8.  10.  29  cum  crus  saucium  penderet  et  cruore 
siccato  frigescens  uulnus  adgrauaret  dolorem,  dixisse  fertur  se  quidem 
louis  filium  did,  sed,  etc.,  with  Ep.  I.e.  (of  the  same  incident)  cum 
represso  sanguine  sicci  uolneris  dolor  cresceret  et  crus  suspensum 
equo  paulatim  obtorpuisset,  .  .  .  '  omnes  '  inquit  '  iurant  esse  me 
louis  filium,'  etc. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    157 

With  the  twelfth  century  Curtius  becomes  quite 
popular,  and  some  of  the  Alexander  romances  now 
beginning  to  appear  make  use  of  him.  Not,  apparently, 
the  earliest  of  all,  that  of  Alberic  de  Besan9on,  though 
it  is  on  the  blank  pages  of  a  Curtius  MS.  that  the  work 
itself  has  been  preserved  to  us.  But  his  influence 
upon  Alexandre  de  Bernay  and  Gautier  de  Lille  is 
unmistakable.  Petrarch's  copy,  preserved  at  Paris, 
shows  many  traces  of  his  annotating  hand.  About 
1425,  Niccol^  da  Cusa  assured  Poggio  that  he  had 
found  a  MS.  containing  the  commencement  of  the  work, 
but  he  seems  to  have  been  mistaken.  Elyot  acutely 
couples  the  book  with  Xenophon's  equally  imaginative 
account  of  the  upbringing  of  Cyrus. ^  Racine  ac- 
knowledges the  debt  of  his  own  Alexander  play  to 
Book  Eight,  and  Voltaire  assures  us  that  the  whole 
work  was  a  favourite  with  Charles  the  Twelfth  of 
Sweden.  He  was  not  the  first  king  it  had  pleased, 
as  we  are  told  that  Alphonse  the  Tenth  of  Spain, 
falHng  ill  and  getting  no  good  of  his  doctors,  took  a 
course  of  Curtius  and  was  cured. 

The  historians  between  Curtius  and  Tacitus  are 
represented  to  us  by  only  the  scantiest,  dullest  of 
fragments.  But  the  influence  some  of  them  had,  or 
are  thought  to  have  had,  upon  Tacitus,  the  references 
to  them  in  extant  hterature,  and  other  considerations, 
make  it  necessary  to  say  something  about  them. 

Marcus  Servilius  Nonianus,  the  friend  of  Persius,^ 
was  consul  in  a.d.  35,^  and  died  in  a.d.  59.*  As  we  do 
not  hear  of  his  having  written  anything  but  history, 
it  was  probably  an  historical  work  he  was  '  reading ' 
when    Claudius    paid    him    the    unexpected    visit   of 

^  Governour  i.  ii.  "  See  p.  66. 

*  Tac.  Ann.  6.  31.  *  Tac.  Ann.  14.  19. 


158    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

which  a  letter  of  Phny's  has  preserved  some  details.^ 
QuintiUan  holds  his  style  too  luxuriant  for  the  subject, 
but  both  he  and  Tacitus  regard  him  as  a  writer  of 
mark.  2 

Cluvius  Rufus,  who  was  consul  probably  under 
Caligula,^  was  on  intimate  terms  with  Nero,  whom  in- 
deed he  served  as  herald  on  the  occasion  of  his  musical 
performances.^  Under  Galba  he  was  governor  of  a 
Spanish  province,^  which  he  left  in  order  to  support 
Vitellius.  He  joined  that  emperor  in  the  course  of  his 
journey  to  Italy, ^  and  was  present  with  Silius  at  the 
interview  between  him  and  Sabinus  in  a.d.  69.'  The 
fact  that  the  version  of  this  given  by  Tacitus  refers 
merely  to  report,  not  Cluvius'  own  account,  makes 
it  probable  that  his  history  did  not  cover  the  reign  of 
Vitelhus.  On  the  other  hand,  the  use  of  it  by  Tacitus 
and  Plutarch  ^  and  PHny's  story  of  the  author's 
apology  to  Verginius  Rufus  for  having  stated  the 
truth  even  when  it  might  not  be  palatable  to  the 
victor  of  Vesontio  ^  make  it  clear  that  it  dealt  at  least 
with  the  reign  of  Nero  and  the  events  immediately 
following  thereon. 

Fabius  Rusticus  is  occasionally  cited  for  events 
that  occurred  under  Nero  by  Tacitus,^^  who  says  he  was 

^  I.  13.  3  memoria  parentum  Claudiiim  Caesarem  ferunt,  cum  in 
Palatio  spatiaretur  audissetque  clamorem,  causani  requisisse,  cumqiie 
dictum  essei  recitare  Nonianum,  subitum  recitanti  inopinatumque 
uenisse. 

*  Quint.  10.  I.  102  clari  uir  ingenii  et  sententiis  creber,  sed  minus 
pressus  quam  historiae  auctoritas  postulat,  Tac.  Ann.  14.  19  tradendis 
rebus  Romanis  Celebris. 

^  See  Joseph.  Antiq.  19.  13  (  =  §  91). 

«  Suet.  Ner.  21  ;    Dio  63.  14.  »  Tac.  Hist.  i.  8. 

6  Tac.  Hist.  2.  65.  7  See  p.  28. 

"  Tac.  Ann.  13.  20,  14.  2  ;    Plut.  0th.  3. 

"  Ep.  9.  19.  5.  Verginius  replied  that  it  was  in  order  to  secure  the 
historians  such  hberty  that  he  had  played  the  part  he  had. 

^o  Ann.  13.  20,  14.  2,  15.  61. 


I  HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS     159 

a  proteg6  of  Seneca's  and  showed  partiality  to  the 
philosopher.!  In  the  Agricola  ^  he  is  coupled 
with  Livy  as  the  best  styhst  of  the  modern,  as  the 
other  was  of  the  old,  school  of  history.  The  mysterious 
historian  whom  Quintihan  ^  styles  the  glory  of  his  day, 
but  refuses  to  name  as  still  living,  must  presumably 
have  published  some  historical  work  before  such  a 
eulogy  could  be  penned,  cannot  therefore  have  been 
Tacitus,  but  might  easily  enough  be  either  Cluvius 
or  Fabius. 

The  elder  Pliny's  History  of  the  Wars  of  Germany 
was  begun  when  he  was  serving  in  that  country,* 
and  may  have  been  published  under  Claudius.  It  is, 
however,  by  no  means  certain  that  it  was,  and  it  seems 
most  convenient  to  speak  of  the  work  under  the  Flavian 
dynasty,  which  saw  the  completion  of  the  Natural 
History  and  the  history  in  continuation  of  Aufidius, 
It  has  perished,  and  the  only  certain  fragment  is  a 
statement  concerning  Agrippina  preserved  by  Tacitus ;  ^ 
the  details  as  to  the  exact  whereabouts  of  Caligula's 
birthplace,  for  which  Suetonius  claims  Pliny's  authority,^ 
were  probably  drawn  from  it.  The  author's  nephew 
informs  us  that  it  contained  in  twenty  books  an  account 
of  all  Rome's  wars  with  the  Germans.'  In  the  fourth 
century  Symmachus  promises  to  look  for  a  copy  for 
a  friend,  but  does  not  seem  to  feel  very  sanguine  of 


'  Ann.  13  I.e.  sane  inclinat  ad  laudes  Senecae,  cuius  amicitia  floruit. 

^  §  10  Liuius  ueterum,  Fabius  Rusticus  recentium  eloquentis- 
simus. 

'  10.  I.  104  superest  adhuc  el  exornat  aetatis  nostrae  gloriam  uir 
saeculorum  memoria  dignus,  qui  olini  iwminabitur,  nunc  intellegitur. 

*  Plin.  Ep.  3.  5.  4  '  bellorum  Gertnaniae  XX.  [libri),'  quibus  omnia 
quae  cum  Gernianis  gessimus  bella  collegit :  incohauit  cum  in  Germania 
militaret. 

*  Ann.  I.  69.  «  Cal.  8. 
'  Plin.  Ep.  3.  5.  4  (quoted  above). 


i6o   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

success/  and  we  hear  no  more  of  the  book  until 
Renaissance  times,  when  it  figures  among  the  books 
with  hopes  of  which  da  Cusa  tantaUzed  Poggio. 
One  or  two  subsequent  attempts  to  prove  the  existence 
of  MSS.  containing  it  seem  to  have  had  no  better 
justification. 2  The  history  that  bore  the  title  From 
the  Conclusion  of  Au/idius  Bassus  ran  to  thirty-one 
books,^  and  was  kept  unpublished  so  that  no  one  could 
suspect  the  author  of  having  made  in  it  any  bids  for 
imperial  favour.*  There  doubtless  he  means  the 
readers  of  the  Natural  History  to  find  the  account  of 
Nero  to  which  he  twice  refers  them,  thence  doubtless 
Tacitus  draws  some  statements,  for  which  he  makes 
Pliny  responsible,  in  regard  to  incidents  of  Nero's 
reign  (the  earhest,  one  of  a.d.  55),  or  the  year  a.d.  69.^ 
Far  beyond  this  fateful  date  it  cannot  have  gone, 
as  its  author  speaks  of  it  in  the  preface  to  the  Natural 
History,  penned  in  a.d.  77,  as  long  since  completed.^ 

And  now  for  a  glance  at  those  humbler  branches  of 
our  subject,  Biography  and  the  Memoir.  Neither 
was  unknown  to  republican  times.  Sulla  had  combined 
them  in  an  autobiography.  The  first  emperor  wrote 
a  thirteen-volume  history  of  his  life  :  even  Agrippa 
found  time  to  compile  something  of  the  sort.  In  our 
period  both  Tiberius  and  Claudius  composed  auto- 
biographies, and  although  the  former's  was  little  more 
than  a  sketch,'  that  of  his  nephew  ran  to  eight  books, 

1  Ep.  4.  18.  6. 

2  See  M.  Lehnerdt,  Ein  verschoUenes  Werk  des  aelteren  Plinius, 
in  Hermes  1913. 

3  Plin.  Ep.  3.  5.  6  '  ^  fine  Aufidi  Bassi  XXXI.  (libri).' 

*  Plin.  Nat.  Hist,  praef.  20.  uos  omnes  diximus  opere  iusto, 
iemporum  nostrorum  historiam  or  si  a  fine  Aufidi  Bassi.  Ubi  sit 
ea,  quaeres  ?  iampridem  peracta  sancitur,  et  alioqui  statutum  erat 
heredi  mandare,  ne  quid  ambitioni  dedisse  uita  iudicaretur. 

6  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  2.  199,  232  ;  Tac.  Ann.  13.  20,  15.  53  ;  Hist.  3.  28. 

*  See  quotation  in  note  4.  '  Suet.  Tib.  61. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    i6i 

in  which  silhness  of  matter  was  combined  with  some 
elegance  of  style. ^  The  elder  PUny's  life  of  his  friend 
Pomponius  ^  will  not  have  been  of  much  historical 
importance,  but  those  of  the  great  republicans  Thrasea 
and  Helvidius,  edited  by  Arulenus  Rusticus  and 
Herennius  Senecio  respectively,  covered  ground  less 
secure  and  cost  their  authors  their  lives.  ^  As  for  me- 
moirs, one  feels  deeply  the  loss  of  Agrippina's,  which 
are  quoted  by  Tacitus  and  doubtless  supplied  Pliny 
with  the  details  anent  the  birth  of  Nero  for  which  he 
cites  her  testimony.^  This  same  Pliny's  reference  to 
Suetonius  Paulinus  as  an  authority  upon  the  geography 
of  the  regions  adjoining  Mount  Atlas  ^  makes  it  prob- 
able that  he  published  a  description  of  the  war  which 
he  carried  on  in  Mauretania  during  a.d.  42.  That 
Corbulo  did  the  same  for  his  Armenian  campaign 
of  A.D.  55-63  is  almost  certain,  that  Tacitus  used  it 
freely,  though  he  only  once  names  him  as  an  authority,^ 
quite  probable.  Pliny  occasionally  quotes  him  in 
connexion  with  Armenia.'  Vipstanus  Messalla  is 
twice  cited  by  Tacitus  in  his  account  of  the  capture 
of  Cremona  in  a.d.  69,^  and  as  he  is  never  mentioned 
as  a  historian  it  is  generally  assumed  that  he  wrote 
an  account  of  the  campaign  of  which  that  event  was 
an  episode.  Josephus  twice  mentions  the  memoirs 
of  Vespasian,^  but  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  they 

^  Claud.  41  composuit  ei  de  uita  sua  VIII  uolumina,  magis  inepte 
quant  ineleganter. 

2  Plin.  Ep.  3.  5.  3.  *  Tac.  Agr.  2.  i. 

*  Tac.  Ann.  4.  53  id  ego  .  .  .  repperi  in  commentariis  Agrippinae 
quae  .  .  .  uitam  suam  et  casus  suorum  posteris  memoyauit ;  Plin. 
Nat.  Hist.  7.  46  Neronem  .  .  .  pedibus  geniium  scrihit  parens  eius 
Agrippina. 

6  Nat.  Hist.  5.  14.  "  Ann.  15.  16. 

'  Nat.  Hist.  2.  180,  5.  83  and  especially  6.  23  and  40. 

'  Hist.  3.  25  and  28.     He  commanded  one  of  the  Flavian  legions. 

•  Joseph.  Vita  G5  (^§  342)  iv  toU  Ove<nracn(iyov  tou  avTOKparopoi 
virofivTjfJLaaii'. 

L 


i62    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

were  concerned  only  with  the  Jewish  war  or  had  a 
more  general  scope.  For  convenience  sake  it  seems 
best  to  mention  here,  along  with  the  other  works  of 
its  kind,  Trajan's  account  of  the  Dacian  wars,  though 
it  appeared  after  Tacitus  had  begun  to  write  and  so 
does  not,  strictly  speaking,  belong  to  this  section. 
It  comprised  at  least  two  books,  and  is  quoted  by 
Priscian.i 

(6)  Tacitus 

Our  knowledge  of  Publius  Cornelius  Tacitus  is 
derived  mainly  from  his  works  and  the  letters  of  the 
younger  Pliny.  The  latter's  reference  to  him  as  one 
who  though  roughly  his  equal  in  age  had  already  won 
his  spurs  when  he  himself  was  still  a  youth,  shows 
that  he  was  born  not  many  years  before  a.d.  62," 
and  as  he  was  praetor  in  a.d.  88,  it  is  improbable  that 
his  birth  occurred  later  than  a.d.  58.  Closer  than  this 
it  seems  impossible  to  fix  it :  the  date  generally 
accepted,  54  or  55,  assumes  that  he  was  quaestor  in 
79-80,  and  this  is  not  certain.  If  Tacitus  wrote  the 
Dialogus,  then  somewhere  about  a.d.  77  he  was  studying 
the  methods  of  the  barristers  Aper  and  Secundus,^ 
and  this  was  certainly  the  year  in  which  Agricola 
promised  him  the  hand  of  his  ^daughter,  the  marriage 
taking  place  immediately  before  the  general's  appoint- 
ment to  Britain  (?  a.d.  78).*  Tacitus'  statement  that 
Vespasian  started  him  on  the  road  to  honour  ^  may 
of  course  mean  that  he  secured  him  his  first  important 

^  Priscian  Inst.  6.  13  [Gramtn.  Lat.  2,  p.  205)  Traianus  in  prima 
Dacicornm. 

*  Ep.  7.  20.  4  quoted  on  p   132'. 

*  Dial.  2.  *  Agr.  9.  7. 

*  Hist.  I.  I.  dignitatem  nostrum  a  Vespasiano  inchoatam,  a  Tito 
auctam,  a  Domitiano  longius  prouectam  non  abnuerim. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS     163 

magistracy,  the  quaestorship,  but  it  is  equally  possible 
that  it  refers  to  the  grant  of  the  laticlave,  without 
which,  if  he  belonged  to  the  equestrian  order,  as  did 
the  procurator  Cornehus  Tacitus  mentioned  by  the 
elder  PUny,i  and  generally  regarded  as  a  relative  of 
the  historian's,  he  could  never  have  stood  for  such 
an  office.  He  goes  on  to  say  that  he  gained  promotion 
from  Titus  and  Domitian,  that  is  to  say,  first  the 
quaestorship  or,  if  he  really  held  this  under  Vespasian, 
one  of  those  two  equivalent  magistracies,  the  tribunate 
and  aedileship,  and  then  the  praetorship,  which  we 
know  him  to  have  held,  with  the  quindecemvirate,  in 
A.D.  88.2  Soon  afterwards,  it  would  seem,  he  left  Rome, 
perhaps  for  a  minor  governorship  :  neither  he  nor  his 
wife  were  there  when  Agricola  died  in  a.d.  93,  and  he 
observes  that  they  had  really  lost  him  four  years  be- 
fore,^ On  the  other  hand,  the  pictures  of  the  senate, 
under  the  terror  of  Domitian's  last  years,  suggest 
an  eyewitness.*  For  the  funeral  oration  of  a.d.  97, 
and  the  prosecution  of  Marius  three  years  later,  see 
p.  133.  A  Cornehus  Tacitus,  who  is  usually  identified 
with  the  historian,  was  governor  of  Asia  under  Trajan,^ 
and  a  reference  in  the  Annals  ^  to  the  extension  of  the 
Empire  to  the  Persian  Gulf  must  have  been  penned 
about  A.D.  116. 

1  Nat.  Hist.  7.  76. 

*  Tac.  Ann.  ii.  ii  edidit  {Domitianus)  ludos  saeciclares  eisquc 
intentius  adfiii,  sacerdotio  quindecimuirali  (see  p.  20)  praeditus  ac  tunc 
praetor. 

'  Agr.  45.  4  mihi  filiaeque  eius  .  .  .  auget  maestitiam  quod 
adsidere  ualetudini,  fouere  deficientem,  satiari  unltti  complexuque  non 
contigit.  (5)  .  .  .  nobis  tarn  longae  absentiae  condicione  ante 
quadriennium  amissus  est. 

*  Agr.  45.  I,  2. 

^  See  an  inscription  published  in  Bulletin  de  corresp.  helUn., 
1890,  p.  621. 

"  2.  6i  exim  uentum  Elephantinen  ac  Syenen,  claustra  olim  Romani 
imperii,  quod  nunc  rubruni  ad  mare  patescit. 


i64   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Tacitus  seems  to  have  turned  author  rather  late  in 
hfe.  PHny's  letters,  arranged  in  roughly  chronological 
order,  presuppose  the  barrister  only,  until,  some 
halfway  through  Book  Six,  we  find  that  Tacitus  has 
asked  for  details  of  the  elder  Pliny's  death  that  will 
enable  him  to  '  tell  the  story  more  correctly  to  future 
ages.'  ^  Then,  in  Book  Seven, ^  Pliny  admits  that  his 
object  in  reminding  Tacitus  of  sometlxing  he  did  in 
A.D.  93  is  to  make  sure  of  getting  mentioned  in  his 
histories.  All  we  know  of  the  dates  of  publication 
of  the  extant  works  points  the  same  way  :  none 
that  is  certainly  his  appeared  before  Domitian's 
death  in  98  B.C.  As  for  the  Dialogus,  Tacitus'  reference 
in  the  Agricola  preface  to  his  powers  as  '  uncouth  and 
prentice  '  ^  satisfies  me  that  he  had  certainly  not  yet 
written  that  work.  It  is,  however,  urged  by  those 
who  are  anxious  to  make  it  his  first  composition  that 
as  in  the  Agricola  passage  he  is  thinking  mainly  of  the 
suppression  of  literature  under  Domitian,  his  words 
do  not  prove  that  he  had  not  written  anything  before 
that  emperor's  regime,  so  that  the  Dialogus  may 
perfectly  well  have  appeared  under  Titus.  The 
answer  is,  of  course,  that  Titus  died  in  81,  and  the 
dramatic  date  of  the  dialogue  is  77  :  it  is  inconceivable 
that  even  the  most  consummate  of  young  prigs,  pro- 
fessing to  relate  a  discussion  which  had  taken  place 
at  most  four  years  previously,  would  remark,  as 
the  author  of  the  Dialogus  remarks,  that  he  is  reviving 
the  memory  of  something  that  happened  when  he  was 
quite  a  young  man.^     Those,  then,  who  explain  this 

1  Ep.  6.  16.  I  (?  106  A.D.).  2  Ep.  33.  3. 

'  Agy.  3.  3  non  pigebit  uel  incondita  ac  rudi  uoce  memorimn  prion's 
seruitutts  ac  festimonium  praesentium  bonorum  composuisse. 

*  Dial.  I  quos  eandem  hanc  quaestionem  pertractantes  iuuenis 
admodum  audiui. 


I 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    165 

work  as  Tacitus'  farewell  to  his  old,  and  defence  of 
his  new,  profession,  written  only  a  little  later  than 
the  Agricola,  may  be  guilty  of  indulging  their  imagina- 
tion, but  are  at  any  rate  doing  no  violence  to  the  rules 
of  common  sense.  Agricola  and  Germania  are  easily 
dated.  The  latter  must  belong  to  a.d.  98,  the  year  of 
that  second  consulship  of  Trajan's  from  which  its  author 
reckons  210  years  to  the  start  of  the  Cimbrian  invasions.^ 
That  the  Agricola  preceded  it,  is  proved  by  the  words 
already  quoted  from  the  preface  to  that  work,  but  an 
allusion  to  Trajan  as  emperor  ^  fixes  it  in  the  same  year. 
The  history  of  the  Flavians  came  next  :  the  actual 
date  of  publication  cannot  be  even  approximately 
fixed,  but  that  it  preceded  the  Annals  appears  from  a 
reference  Tacitus  makes  in  that  work  to  his  account  of 
Domitian.^  The  title  is  not  recorded  by  the  MS., 
but  the  modern  one,  Histories,  was  probably  that  by 
which  its  author  denoted  it.  Tertullian,  in  quoting 
from  it,*  says,  '  Tacitus  in  the  fifth  of  his  histories,' 
and  as  he  must  have  known  of  the  other  great  history, 
with  its  sixteen  or  more  books,  and  was  bound  to  make 
it  clear  which  of  the  two  he  was  citing,  he  must  be  using 
the  word  as  a  title,  not  simply  in  the  generic  sense 
the  Latin  word  often  bears,  historical  work.  Last 
of  all  appeared  the  history  of  the  Julio-Claudian  line, 
the  Annals  as  we  call  it,  this  time  without  justification. 
The  Latin  word  Annates  denotes  simply  a  history  that 
narrates  events  in  strictly  chronological  order,  year  by 
year,  and,  this  being  the  method  Tacitus  follows  in 

^  Germ.  37.  2  ex  quo  (the  640th  year  of  the  city)  si  ad  alterum 
iniperatoris  Traiani  consulatum  computemus,  ducenti  ferme  et  decern 
anni  colliguntur. 

»  Agr.  44.  5. 

'  Ann.  II.  II  utriusque  principis  vationes  praefermitlo,  satis 
narratas  libris  quibus  res  imperatoris  Domitiani  composui. 

*  Apol.  16. 


i66   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

both  works,  Beatus  Rhenanus,  who  appHed  the  title 
to  each  of  them  impartially,  had  more  reason  on  his 
side  than  Lipsius,  who  seems  to  be  responsible  for  its 
reservation  to  the  later  one.  There  is  really  no  reason 
why  we  should  reject  the  title  '  From  the  death  of  the 
deified  Augustus,'  offered  by  the  MS.  which  has 
preserved  the  first  half  of  it.  It  is  certainly  a  very 
unwieldy  one,  so  much  so  that  the  customary  one  has 
been  retained  in  this  book  for  the  sake  of  convenience, 
but  it  is  decidedly  more  natural  than  that  of  Pliny's 
continuation  of  Aufidius.  The  only  hint  the  work 
contains  of  the  date  at  which  it  was  composed  is  the 
already  mentioned  statement  pointing  to  a.d.  ii6 
or  later. 

The  Agricola,  after  three  prefatory  chapters,  describes 
the  hero's  life  from  his  birth  to  his  consulship  and  his 
appointment  as  governor  of  Britain,  and  then,  at 
Chapter  Ten,  passes  to  a  description  of  Britain  and  its 
habitants,  with  some  account  of  the  invasion  by 
Caesar,  the  occupation  by  Claudius,  the  gradual  re- 
duction by  successive  governors.  All  this  occupies 
eight  chapters,  on  which  follows  the  account  of 
Agricola's  arrival,  his  prompt  and  successful  raid  upon 
Anglesey,  his  administrative  measures,  and  the  brilliant 
expeditions  of  six  consecutive  3/ears.  With  the  last  of 
these,  at  Chapter  Twenty-Nine,  begins  the  account  of 
the  battle  on  the  Graupian  Mount,  occupied  mainly 
with  the  speeches  made  by  the  commanders  on  each 
side.  With  Chapter  Thirty-Nine  the  shadows  begin 
to  fall  :  Agricola  is  recalled  by  the  jealous  emperor 
and  escapes  worse  only  by  the  exercise  of  his  natural 
gifts  of  modesty  and  prudence.  The  account  of 
his  last  illness  and  death  follows,  and  then  Tacitus, 
having  pointed  out  the  enviableness  of  a  death  that 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    167 

saved  his  hero  from  the  horrors  of  the  Terror,  the 
bitterness  for  himself  and  his  wife  of  the  thought 
that  they  had  been  unable  to  be  with  him  at  the 
end,  concludes  with  the  famous  epilogue  : 

If  there  is  some  abode  for  the  spirits  of  the  righteous,  if, 
as  philosopher^  hold,  great  souls  are  not  annihilated  with 
their  bodies,  rest  thou  in  peace  and  call  us,  thy  house, 
from  weak  regret  and  womanish  lamentings  to  the  con- 
templation of  thy  virtues,  over  which  to  mourn  or  wail  were 
sinful.  Let  us  rather  do  thee  honour  by  admiration,  by 
praise  everlasting,  and,  if  our  powers  allow,  by  rivalry. 
.  .  .  And  this  would  I  urge  on  thy  daughter  too,  and 
thy  wife  —  that  they  pay  homage  to  the  memory  of 
husband  and  father  by  musing  over  all  he  said  and 
did,  by  clinging  to  the  lines  and  lineaments  rather  of 
his  soul  than  of  his  body.  Not  that  I  think  we  should 
prohibit  those  likenesses  that  are  wrought  in  marble  or 
bronze.  But,  even  as  the  human  face  is  a  thing  frail  and 
perishable,  so  are  its  counterfeit  representations.  The 
Unes  of  the  soul  are  everlasting,  and  one  can  catch  them 
and  reproduce  them  not  by  any  material  or  skill  which 
another  furnishes,  but  only  through  the  medium  of  one's 
own  character.^ 

The  work  is  panegyric,  not  liistory,  and  even  as  a 
panegyric  not  a  very  satisfactory  performance  :  there 
is  a  deal  of  truth  in  the  criticism  that  has  been  passed 
on  it  to  the  effect  that  all  it  says,  apart  from  the 
record  of  definite  achievements,  could  have  been 
said  equally  well  of  any  Roman  senator  who  had  been 
an  officer,  a  governor,  a  son,  a  father,  and  a  father-in- 
law.  It  is  interesting  to  note  first  glimpses  of  traits 
that  become  obtrusive  in  the  later  works,  foremost 
among  them  the  influence  of  Sallust.  This  is  not 
confined  to  matters  of  language  :  the  chapters  on 
Britain,  whilst  they  prepare  us  for  those  on  Judaea 

1  Agr.  46.  1-3. 


i68    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

in  the  Histories,  also  remind  us  of  the  excursus  on 
Africa  which  Sallust  has  inserted  in  the  Jugurtha 
and  to  which  his  Histories  no  doubt  provided  some 
parallels.  The  author's  tendency  towards  psychological 
analysis  shows  very  clear  in  the  picture  of  the  precau- 
tions by  which  Agricola  guards  himself  against  the 
suspicion  of  Domitian.^ 

The  Dialogus  and  Germania  are  dealt  with  in  Chap- 
ters Eleven  and  Twelve  respectively.  The  Histories 
start  with  the  first  day  of  a.d.  69.  Book  One  recounts 
the  adoption  of  Piso  by  Galba,  the  murder  of  both 
by  the  praetorians  who  have  set  up  Otho,  the  pro- 
clamation of  VitelUus  by  the  legions  of  Germany, 
Otho's  administration  up  to  the  day  when  he  marches 
north  against  his  rival.  Book  Two  describes  Bedri- 
acum  and  the  suicide  of  Otho,  Vitellius'  progress  into 
and  through  Italy,  the  proclamation  of  Vespasian 
by  the  East,  the  early  part  of  ViteUius'  rule.  In 
Book  Three  Antonius  Primus,  acting  for  Vespasian, 
invades  Italy,  routs  the  Vitellians  at  Cremona,  which 
he  takes  and  sacks,  and  storms  the  capital  :  the 
death  of  Vitelhus  concludes  this  section.  Book 
Four,  in  the  course  of  which  ^  we  pass  to  the  year  70, 
is  mainly  concerned  with  the  great  rising  of  the 
Batavian  auxiharies.  What  is  left  of  Book  Five  is 
about  equally  divided  between  the  further  progress 
of  this  war  and  the  early  stages  of  Titus'  attack  on 
Jerusalem. 

The  Annals  recounted  the  fifty-five  years  that 
followed  the  death  of  Augustus  :  what  is  preserved 
to  us  covers  about  forty-two,  and  only  a  brief  resum^ 
is   possible   here.     Book   One   devotes   five   chapters 

1  Agr.  42.  2,  3.  »  At  c.  39.  I. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS     169 

to  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Roman  constitution 
and  the  reign  of  Augustus,  with  a  short  account  of 
the  emperor's  last  days  ;  the  rest,  and  the  five  next 
books,  deal  with  the  rule  of  Tiberius,  the  chief  items 
being  the  mutinies  of  the  legions  of  Germany  and 
Pannonia,  the  campaigns  of  Germanicus  in  the  former 
country,  his  tragic  death  in  the  East  and  the 
machinations  of  Sejanus.  Of  that  minister's  fall 
we  learn  nothing,  most  of  Book  Five  and  the  opening 
chapters  of  Book  Six  having  been  lost.  So  have 
Books  Seven  to  Ten,  involving  the  rule  of  Cahgula 
and  five  or  six  years  of  that  of  Claudius ;  and  the 
mutilated  condition  of  the  MS.  to  which  we  now 
have  to  turn  has  deprived  us  of  perhaps  the  first 
twenty  chapters  of  Book  Eleven.  This  has  MessaHna 
for  main  theme  ;  Book  Twelve  tells  of  the  marriage 
with  Agrippina,  Nero's  adoption,  and  the  death  of 
Claudius ;  Book  Thirteen  of  Nero's  amours,  the  murder 
of  Britannicus  and  Corbulo's  appointment  against 
the  Parthians  (the  war  with  whom  is  described  in 
detail  in  this  and  the  next  two  books) ;  Book  Fourteen 
of  the  emperor's  attempt  on  his  mother's  life,  her 
execution  as  a  traitor,  the  revolt  of  Boadicea,  the 
divorce  and  execution  of  Octavia  ;  Book  Fifteen  of 
the  great  fire  and  the  Piso  conspiracy.  The  thirty-five 
chapters  left  of  Book  Sixteen  contain  little  else  than 
the  series  of  prosecutions  which  culminates  in  that  of 
Thrasea  Paetus,  the  attempt,  as  Tacitus  puts  it,  to 
'  extirpate  virtue  itself.'  ^ 

Tacitus  reckons  it  the  prime  function  of  history 
'  to  ensure  that  virtue's  story  shall  be  told  and 
the   fear   of   posterity   and   disgrace   attend   on   evil 

*  Ann.  16.  21  ad  postrenium  Nero  iiirtutcm  ipsam  cxrcindere 
concupiuit. 


170   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

deeds  and  speeches.'  ^  '  Not  many,'  he  says  else- 
where, ^  '  can  by  their  own  wits  tell  good  from  bad, 
what  is  expedient  from  what  is  harmful.  Most  men 
get  their  knowledge  of  these  matters  from  the  ex- 
perience of  others.  That  is  why  it  is  worth  while 
to  write  the  record  of  these  times.'  He  has  a  high 
conception  of  the  dignity  of  history,  and  although 
he  reahzes  how  inglorious  his  subject  is  in  comparison 
with  those  of  the  repubhcans  and  Livy,^  only  resents 
the  more  any  attempt  to  vulgarize  it.  '  To  look 
about  for  marvellous  happenings  and  regale  my 
readers  with  mere  tales  would  be,  to  my  thinking, 
to  stray  from  the  dignity  of  the  task  I  have  set  myself,' 
he  says  in  the  Histories  :  ^  a  passage  in  the  Annals  ^ 
is  still  more  explicit — 

One  could  fill  volumes  with  the  praise  of  the  foundations 
laid  and  the  timber  used  in  the  vast  amphitheatre  erected 
by  the  emperor,  but  it  has  been  found  more  in  accordance 
with  the  majesty  of  Rome  to  record  in  historical  works 
events  that  are  of  signal  importance  and  commit  topics  like 
these  to  the  daily  journals.^ 

At  the  opening  of  the  Histories  Tacitus  lays  stress  on 
the  importance  of  impartiahty,  as  indeed  in  that  of  the 


^  Ann.  3.  65  qiiod  praecipuum  munits  annaliiim  rear,  ne  utrtutes 
sileantur  utque  prauis  dictis  facHsque  ex  posteritate  et  infamia  metus  sit. 

^  Ann.  4.  33  haec  conquiri  iradique  in  rem  fiierit,  quia  pauci 
prudentia  honesta  ab  deter ioribus,  utilia  ab  noxiis  discernunt,  plures 
aliomni  enentis  docentur. 

'  Ann.  4.  32  ingentia  illi  bella  .  .  .  ant,  si  quando  ad  interna 
praeuerterent,  discordias  consilium  aduersum  tribunos,  agrarias 
frumentariasque  leges,  plebis  et  optimatium  certamina  .  .  .  memor- 
abant  :   nobis  in  arto  et  inglorius  labor. 

*  2.  50  conquirere  fabulosa  et  fictis  oblectare  legentium  animos 
procul  grauitate  coepti  operis  crediderim. 

^  13-  31- 

8  Cum  ex  dignitate  populi  Romani  repertum  sit  res  illustres  anna- 
libus,  talia  diurnis  tirbis  actis  mandare. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    171 

Annals  ^  he  claims  to  be  writing  '  without  animus  or 
favour.'  It  was,  however,  impossible  to  keep  his 
work  entirely  uncoloured  by  his  strong  admiration 
for  Republican  times,  his  pessimism,  deep-rooted 
in  the  memory  of  the  Terror,  his  aristocratic  pride, 
that  with  all  its  scorn  for  contented  proletariate  and 
servile  nobihty  finds  Httle  sympathy  for  the  theatrical 
methods  of  the  republican  opposition,  for  even  a  good 
emperor  Httle  more  than  toleration,  bred  of  the  behef 
that  the  rule  of  an  individual  is  inevitable  in  the  evil 
days  to  which  he  is  born.^  It  is  hardly  just,  however, 
to  say  that  he  is  blind  to  any  point  of  view  but  that 
of  the  Roman  conquerors  of  the  world.  Certainly 
the  speech  with  which  his  Cerealis  reproaches  the 
Gauls  who  have  joined  the  German  Civilis  is  as  one- 
sided as  any  native  of  Egypt  or  India  might  find  the 
views  of  the  most  extreme  of  British  imperiahsts — 

'Twas  through  no  selfishness  that  Rome's  generals 
entered  your  land,  but  at  the  invitation  of  your  ancestors, 
worn  out  almost  to  extinction  by  their  factions,  with  the 
yoke  of  the  Germans  whom  they  had  called  to  their  aid 
laid  impartially  upon  foes  and  allies  alike.  .  .  .  We 
occupied  the  Rhine,  not  to  protect  Italy,  but  to  prevent  some 
fresh  Ariovistus  from  making  himself  King  of  Gaul.  Do 
you  suppose  that  Civilis  and  the  Batavi  and  the  peoples 
across  the  Rhine  love  you  any  better  than  their  ancestors 

*  Sine  ira  et  studio,  quorum  causas  procul  habeo. 

2  In  Ann.  14.  12  he  notes  that  Thrasea  by  his  attitude  sibi  causam 
■periculi,  ceteris  libertatis  initium  non  praebuit,  in  Agr.  42.  5  remarks, 
a  propos  of  the  prudence  displayed  by  his  hero  in  his  deahngs  with 
the  emperor,  sciant  quibus  maris  est  illicita  mirari,  posse  etiam  sub 
malis  principibus  magnos  uiros  esse,  obsequiumque  ac  modestiam, 
si  industria  ac  uigor  adsint,  eo  laudis  excedere  quo  plerisque  per 
abrupta,  sed  in  nullum  reipublicae  usum,  ambitiosa  morte  inclaruerunt. 
No  careful  reader  can  deny  that  the  words  he  puts  in  the  mouth  of 
Eprius  Marcellus  (Hist.  4.  8  se  meminissc  temporutn  quibus  natus 
sit  .  .  .  tiUeriora  mirari,  praesentia  sequi ;  bonos  imperatores  uoto 
expetere,  qualescumque  tolcrare)  nearly  represent  his  own  position. 


172    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

loved  your  fathers  and  grandfathers  ?  Ever  the  same 
motives  are  they  that  bring  the  Germans  into  Gaul — lust, 
greed,  and  the  desire  to  migrate,  that  they  may  leave 
their  marshes  and  deserts  and  hold  in  thrall  this  most 
fertile  of  lands  and  your  own  persons.  Of  course  they 
gloss  them  over  with  the  name  of  liberty  and  fine  phrases  : 
no  one  ever  hoped  to  make  other  men  his  slaves  and 
subjects  but  he  used  the  same  terms. 

Tyranny  and  warfare  were  the  order  of  the  day  in  Gaul 
until  you  came  under  our  jurisdiction  :  we,  spite  of  the 
frequent  provocations  we  had  received,  used  the  right  of 
victory  only  to  impose  on  you  what  would  enable  us  to 
maintain  peace.  For  peace  cannot  be  kept  in  the  world 
without  armies,  nor  armies  without  pay,  nor  pay  without 
taxation.  In  all  other  respects  you  share  with  us.  Often 
enough  you  command  our  legions,  rule  provinces — here  or 
elsewhere  :  there  is  nothing  set  apart  or  closed  to  you.  .  .  . 
If  Rome  falls  (which  God  forbid  !)  what  can  result  but  a 
world-war  ?  Eight  hundred  years  of  good  fortune  and 
ordering  has  it  taken  this  mighty  fabric  to  set  firm,  and  now 
it  cannot  be  torn  up  without  bringing  destruction  on  those 
who  make  the  attempt  :  You,  however,  it  is  that  are  most 
in  danger,  for  you  have  in  your  possession  the  chief  causes 
of  war — gold  and  power.  ^ 

And  yet  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  an  ancient 
writer  who  has  voiced  more  clearly  the  grievances  of 
the  provincials.  The  frankness  of  the  speeches  assigned 
to  Calgacus  or  Civilis  or  the  ambassadors  of  the  Tenc- 
teri  2  may  be  due  to  rhetorical  rather  than  historical 
considerations  :  the  declamation  student  was  expected 
to  plead  both  sides  of  a  case.  But  the  implications 
of  the  chapter  on  Agricola's  reforms  in  Britain,  and 
the  plain  story  of  the  centurion's  extortions  with 
which  Tacitus  justifies  the  statement  that  a  revolt 
was  brought  about  '  rather  by  our  Roman  avarice 
than  the  contumacy  of  the  provincials  '   cannot  be 

^  Hist.  4.  73,  74.  *  Agr.  30,  Hist.  4.  14  and  64. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    173 

discounted  thus.^  That  he  never  misleads  us  in- 
tentionally is  generally  agreed,  but  the  reply  to  the 
question,  '  Has  he  taken  pains  to  make  sure  of  not 
being  himself  misled  ?  '  is  less  unanimous.  It  must, 
of  course,  come  in  the  negative  from  those  who  hold 
that  in  the  Histories  at  any  rate  he  has  followed  a 
single  source  so  closely  that  his  own  contribution 
amounts  to  little  more  than  translation  into  his  ex- 
quisite and  characteristic  language.  It  is  a  fact  that 
certain  parts  of  Plutarch's  Otho  and  Galba  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  the  Histories  on  the  other,  show  striking 
resemblances,  involving  in  one  case  ^  the  use  in  the 
same  context  of  the  self-same,  typically  Silver,  '  point,' 
and  if  we  accept  the  view  that  the  Greek  will  not  have 
borrowed  from  the  Roman,  then  we  are  indeed  reduced 
to  the  necessity  of  believing  that  each  writer  has 
been  making  use  of  some  now  lost  authority,  and 
that  an  expression  which  looks  thoroughly  Tacitean 
may  have  come  straight  from  this  source.  To  me 
personally  none  of  the  arguments  urged  against 
Plutarch's  having  used  Tacitus  seems  comparable 
in  weight  with  the  argument  which  the  historian's 
own  character  supplies  against  a  theory  that  would 
make  him  out  first  a  mere  stylist  and  then  a  stylist 
who  cannot  resist  the  temptation  to  reproduce  an 
epigram  which  he  finds  in  the  book  whence  he  is 
getting  his  facts. ^  He  certainly  imphes,  and  fairly 
frequently,  that  he  has  a  number  of  authorities  before 
him,   though  seldom  naming  them  until  he  reaches 

^  Agr.  19,  Ann.  4.  72. 

-  Tac.  Hist.  I.  81  cum  timeret  Otho,  tiniebaiur,  Plut.  0th.  3 
(po^ov/jLevoi  virb  rwv  dvdpwv  aurbs  ^v  <po^ep6s.  The  scene  is  the  banquet 
of  p.  182. 

2  That  both  Tacitus  and  Plutarch  should  succumb  to  the  tempta- 
tion seems  to  me  quite  improbable,  but  I  prefer  to  meet  a  pedantic 
theory  on  the  broad  ground  of  literary  calibre. 


174    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Nero.i  He  occasionally  refers  to  supplementary 
sources  as  Agrippina's  memoirs,  or  accounts  derived 
from  men  older  than  himself.  ^  In  speaking  of  the 
prosecutions  for  treason  under  Tiberius  he  claims  to 
have  unearthed  a  number  of  interesting  cases  that  have 
been  overlooked  by  his  predecessors  :  ^  that  this 
attitude  on  his  part  is  no  pose  seems  proved  by  the 
Pliny  letters  mentioned  above,  which  imply  eagerness 
on  the  historian's  part  to  open  up  new  channels  of 
information  and  recognition  on  his  friend's  of  the 
improbability  of  anything  having  escaped  his  pains- 
taking care.*  He  is  not  devoid  of  the  critical  faculty 
either.  When  he  finds  that  Fabius  Rusticus  describes 
Seneca  as  bravely  supporting  Burrus  at  a  crisis  in 
which  others  maintain  that  he  was  never  involved, 
he  observes  that  this  writer  is  addicted  to  the  panegyric 
of  his  patron  the  philosopher.^  He  likes  to  take  current 
report  or  a  statement  on  which  his  authorities  are 
fairly  unanimous,  and  test  it  in  the  balance  of  common 
sense,  noting,  for  instance,  that  the  popular  explanation 
of  Tiberius'  withdrawal  from  Rome,  as  engineered  by 
Sejanus,  ignores  the  fact  that  it  continued  for  the  six 
years  by  which  the  emperor  survived  his  minister,  and 
that  as  Nero  loved  Poppaea  and  desired  children  by 

1  Cp.  Ann.  I.  8i,  3.  3,  4.  53,  6.  7,  13.  20.  Definite  names  are 
cited,  Ann.  i.  69  (C.  Plinius),  13.  20  (Fabius  Rusticus,  Plinius, 
Cluvius),  14.  2  (Cluvius),  15.  53  (C.  Plinius),  15.  61  (Fabius  Rusticus), 
Hist.  3.  28  (C.  Plinius). 

*  Ami.  4.  53  (see  p.  161*),  3.  16  audire  me  memini  ex  senior ibus,  etc. 
He  also  refers  to  senate  records  {Ann.  15.  74  commentarii  senatus), 
the  official  gazette  {Ann.  3.  3  diurna  actorum  scriptura),  published 
speeches  of  Tiberius  {Ann.  i.  81)  and  accounts  by  Corbulo  and 
Messalla  (seep.  161). 

*  Ann.  6.  7  nobis  pleraque  digna  cognitu  obuenere,  quamquam 
ab  aliis  incelebrata. 

*  See  especially  Ep.  7. 33. 3  demonstro  itaque,  quamquam  diligentiam 
tuam  fugere  non  possit. 

^  Ann.  13.  20. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    175 

her,  the  legend  that  he  killed  her  by  poison,  not  an 
angry  kick,  deserves  little  credit. ^ 

If,  then,  we  leave  out  of  consideration  the  numerous 
cases  in  which  Tacitus  allows  his  passion  for  psycho- 
logical description  to  lead  him  to  ascribe  motives 
to  his  characters  when  he  cannot  well  have  known 
what  their  motives  were,  cases,  that  is,  where  the 
deception  is  generally  quite  transparent,  we  may 
fairly  say  that  he  never  consciously  sacrifices  historical 
truth,  except  in  the  matter  of  the  speeches.  Here, 
again,  he  is  practising  no  deception,  but  merely  follow- 
ing the  convention  of  ancient  history  for  which  perhaps 
Thucydides  is  mainly  responsible,  and  which,  not 
content  with  requiring  speeches  where  there  was  no 
evidence  of  anything  having  been  said  at  all,  or  at  all 
events  no  record  of  what  had  been  said,  forbade  him, 
even  when  a  full  report  was  at  his  disposal,  to  make 
any  other  use  of  it  than  to  select  such  of  its  ideas 
as  he  wished  to  preserve  and  throw  them  into  a  form 
that  harmonized  with  the  general  style  of  his  book. 
This  is  why  Tacitus,  when  he  decUnes  to  reproduce 
Seneca's  dying  utterances,  on  the  ground  of  their 
having  already  been  pubhshed,  says  that  he  would 
avoid  (not  '  the  repetition,'  but)  '  the  recasting '  of  his 
words. 2  And  later  on,  when  it  is  a  question  of  plain 
speech  with  which  an  officer  answers  Nero's  inter- 
rogation— 

No  soldier  was  more  loyal  to  you  while  you  deserved  to 
be  loved,  but  when  you  became  murderer  of  your  wife  and 
mother,  jockey,  strolling-plaj^er,  and  incendiarist,  love 
changed  to  loathing — 

he  adds  apologetically,  '  I  give  the  actual  words  :   they 

*  Ann.  4.  57,  16.  6. 

*  Ann.  15.  63  in  uulgus  edita  eius  uerbis  invertere  supersedeo. 


176    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

were  never  published  like  Seneca's,  but  the  expressions 
of  the  soldier,  forcible  though  crude,  have  equal 
right  to  fame.'  ^  The  discovery  at  Lyons  in  1528 
of  the  record  of  part  of  the  address  with  which  Claudius 
recommended  to  the  senate  the  proposal  to  make 
Roman  citizens  born  in  certain  parts  of  Gaul  eligible 
to  the  House, 2  puts  us  in  a  position  to  compare  one  of 
these  Tacitean  '  versions  '  with  its  original.  Mutilated 
as  the  tablet  is,  it  preserves  some  characteristic 
specimens  of  the  eccentric  orator's  eloquence. 
Claudius  tries  to  enumerate  all  the  changes  the  con- 
stitution has  ever  undergone,  and  in  doing  so  does 
certainly  mention  those  which  illustrate  Rome's 
readiness  to  admit  foreigners  to  power.  But  even 
when  dealing  with  these  he  is  for  ever  digressing, 
generally  into  antiquarian  by-ways.  '  Among  Rome's 
kings  were  aliens  like  the  Tarquins  and  Servius  Tullius  ' 
is  a  good  argument,  but  what  is  the  point  of  noticing 
the  question  as  to  whether  the  second  Tarquin  was  son 
or  grandson  to  the  first,  or  whether  or  not  Servius 
was  once  called  Vivenna  ?  When  the  speaker  suddenly 
turns  upon  himself  with  the  words,  '  Tiberius  Caesar 
Germanicus,  'tis  time  you  made  the  senate  clear  as  to 
the  drift  of  your  remarks,'  we  cannot  help  agreeing 
with  him,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  apostrophe  is 
highly  undignified.  It  is  also  disappointing  :  there 
are  more  futihties  to  follow,  and  indeed  the  only  really 
telling  argument  in  the  whole  fragment  comes  at  the 
end  :  '  if  any  one  is  thinking  of  the  ten  years  these 
Gauls  kept  Caesar  in  the  field,  let  him  set  on  the  other 
side  the  steadfast  loyalty  of  a  century.'     The  speech 

^  L.c.  67  ipsa  rettuli  uerba,  quia  non,  ut  Senecae,  uulgata  erant,  nee 
minus  nosci  decebat  militaris  uiri  sensus  incorruptos  et  ualidos. 
»  C.  I.  L.  13.  1668  (  =  Dessau  i.  212). 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    177 

in  the  Annals  ^  is  a  very  much  more  effective  pro- 
duction, with  the  same  appeal  to  the  precedents  for 
changing  the  constitution,  to  the  rule  of  kings  of  aHen 
birth,  to  the  long  peace  of  Gaul,  but  no  pueriHties 
and  no  clumsiness.  The  points  are  kept  distinct  from 
each  other  and  put  tersely  and  forcibly  :  once  at 
least  historic  accuracy  is  sacrificed  to  the  claims  of 
rhetoric  ;  it  is  clear,  in  short,  that  we  are  listening 
to  Tacitus,  barrister  and  Silver  historian,  not  Claudius 
the  antiquarian. 

Just  as  our  author's  conception  of  history 
occasionally  differs  from  ours,  so  his  views  as  to  the 
dignity  of  history.  The  sordid  story  of  Pontia's 
murder  by  the  lover  whom  she  proposes  to  desert  ^ 
could  hardly  claim  a  place  in  the  pages  of  a  modern 
historian.  Possibly  the  fact  that  this  lover  held  at  the 
time  he  committed  the  crime  that  great  inheritance 
of  Repubhcan  times  the  tribunate  had  some  influence 
in  deciding  Tacitus  to  tell  it.  The  fall  of  the  wooden 
amphitheatre  at  Fidenae,^  again,  seems  to  us  distinctly 
a  topic  for  the  daily  journals,  whose  sphere  we  have 
seen  Tacitus  himself  contrasting  with  that  of  his  own 
activities.  The  place  had  been  put  up  by  a  speculator 
with  an  eye  to  cheapness  and  complete  disregard 
for  details  of  joist  and  foundation  :  in  the  midst  of  a 
crowded  performance  the  seats  collapsed  and  the 
list  of  casualties  reached,  we  are  assured,  the  total 
of  fifty  thousand.  It  is  of  course  quite  possible 
that  respect  for  the  sanctity  of  human  hfe  has  not 
uniformly  advanced  with  the  progress  of  the  centuries, 
and  that  a  disaster  like  this  impressed  the  ancients 
far  more  than  it  does  our  hardened  selves.  Still,  I 
fancy  it  was  the  sequel  that  most  appealed  to  a  mind 

^  II.  24.  *  Anv..  13.  ^4.  *  Ann.  4.  62.  63. 

M 


178   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

that  never  failed  to  respond  to  the  faintest  echo  of  old 
repubhcan  virtues  : 

The  houses  of  the  great  were  thrown  open,  dressings  and 
surgical  aid  put  at  every  one's  disposal ;  in  fact,  it  seemed 
at  this  moment  as  if  the  city,  for  all  the  gloom  of  its  aspect, 
was  repeating  the  practice  of  our  ancestors,  who  after 
great  battles  would  relieve  the  wounded  with  gifts  of  money 
and  medical  attention.^ 

Sometimes,  again,  it  looks  as  if  Tacitus  were  antici- 
pating the  device  with  which  Shakespeare  relieves  the 
strain  of  his  tragic  scenes.  It  can  hardly,  at  least,  be 
by  accident  that  the  narrative  of  the  Piso  conspiracy, 
full  of  storm  and  stress,  is  followed  immediately  by  a 
most  amusing  episode.^  One  Caesellius  Bassus  assured 
Nero  that  he  had  discovered  on  his  African  estates  an 
underground  chamber  full  of  gold  ingots,  the  hidden 
treasure,  he  presumed,  of  ancient  Dido.  Steps  were 
at  once  taken  to  test  his  good  faith,  but  Caesellius, 
says  the  historian,  was  a  muddle-headed  fellow,  and 
had  only  dreamed  it  all  :  no  chamber  could  ever  be 
found.  Meanwhile,  on  the  strength  of  the  good  things 
to  come,  Nero  was  spending  freely  and  making  grants, 
for  the  payment  of  which  he  had  not  at  present  the 
means,  so  that  '  the  prospect  of  riches  was  one  of  the 
reasons  why  the  State  grew  poor.'  ^ 

Racine  well  calls  Tacitus  le  plus  grand  peintre  de 
I'antiquiU^  The  pictures  that  fill  the  galleries  of 
Histories  and  Annals  are  dark  and  sombre  in  colouring, 
but  vivid  and  moving  as  perhaps  no  other  canvasses 
which  the  ancients  have  left  us,  except  Plato's 
Death  of  Socrates  and  Thucydides'  End  of  the  Sicilian 
Expedition,   can   claim   to   be.     The   series   that   has 

1  Ami.  I.e.  63.  ^  Ann.  16.  i  sqq.  ^  Ann.  I.e.  3. 

*  See  the  seeond  preface  to  Britannicus. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    179 

Messalina  for  its  chief  figure  is  one  of  the  best.^  The 
first  design  draws  her  in  the  zenith  of  her  power, 
taking  part  in  the  arraignment  of  Asiaticus,  whose 
defence  is  so  touching  that  his  persecutor  herself, 
bent  though  she  is  on  the  ruin  of  her  rival's  lover, 
owner  of  most  charming  gardens,  must  withdraw  to 
dry  her  tears — after  dropping  the  consul  a  word  to 
warn  him  that  her  victim  must  on  no  account  be 
acquitted.  Next  comes  a  conclave  of  freedmen, 
ministers  and  masters  of  their  weak  emperor,  whis- 
pering together  over  the  delicate  situation  in  which 
Messalina's  mock  marriage  with  her  paramour  has 
placed  them.  Further  on,  as  Claudius  drives  out 
from  Ostia,  in  consequence  of  information  received, 
the  wiliest  of  these  men  Narcissus  insists  on  a  place 
at  his  master's  side  :  the  two  courtiers  who  accompany 
the  angry  husband  must  not  have  a  chance  of  pacifying 
him  en  route.  Between  the  last  two  paintings  comes 
a  pair  that  must  on  no  account  be  neglected.  In  the 
first,  we  see  the  vintage  festival  being  celebrated  in  the 
palace  gardens.  Wine-presses  are  creaking,  vats  foam- 
ing, the  ladies  of  the  court,  arrayed  in  the  fawn  skins 
of  Bacchic  revellers,  dancing  wild  dances  :  to  and 
fro  amongst  them  move  bride  and  bridegroom,  she  as 
chief  worshipper  with  hair  loose  in  the  wind  and 
brandishing  the  cone-tipped  thyrsus-wand,  he  none 
other  than  the  god  himself,  his  head  wreathed  with 
ivy,  on  his  feet  stage  buskins  that  raise  mere  mortal 
stature  to  that  of  the  Olympians.  Vettius,  the 
court  physician,  has  in  his  merry  mood  chmbed  a 
tree,  and  when  they  ask  him  what  he  can  see  reports 
a  dreadful  storm  coming  up  from  the  direction  of  Ostia. 
More  than  a  jest  this  jest,  as  the  second  picture  shows, 

»  Ann.  II.  2,  28,  33,  31,  32,  37. 


i8o   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

where  news  of  the  emperor's  coming  has  broken  up  the 
gay  assembly,  and  a  farm  cart  that  never  before  carried 
aught  more  valuable  than  garden  rubbish  rumbles 
out  on  the  Ostia  road,  with  the  empress  and  the  three 
attendants  that  are  now  her  only  escort.  In  vain, 
for  Narcissus  frustrates  all  hope  of  interview  with  a 
weak  husband ;  and  presently,  when  he  has  brought 
his  master  safe  to  the  camp  of  the  gaards  and  seen 
the  bridegroom  meet  the  death  which  is  all  he  deigns 
to  ask,  despatches  an  officer  to  make  an  end  of  her. 
Once  more  we  see  her,  as  the  tribune  found  her,  grovel- 
ling on  the  ground  in  those  gardens  she  won  from  the 
condemnation  of  Asiaticus,  with  none  beside  her  but 
her  mother,  who  forgetting  the  differences  of  the 
prosperous  past,  has  come  to  urge  her  to  forestall  the 
shame  of  execution.  But  a  life  of  pleasure  has  long 
since  killed  any  pride  she  may  once  have  had,  and  she 
abandons  herself  to  idle  lamentation.  Soon  there 
will  come  knocking  at  the  gate,  and  the  minister  of 
death  wdll  enter,  nerving  her  to  take  the  proffered 
dagger  and  point  it  timorously,  now  at  her  throat, 
now  at  her  bosom  :  after  all,  it  is  the  tribune's  sword 
that  will  be  needed.  Little  inferior  to  these  are  the 
canvasses  that  tell  of  the  collapse  of  Piso's  conspiracy, ^ 
beginning  with  a  scene  from  low  life,  in  which  the 
courtesan  Epicharis,  weary  of  the  lethargy  of  nobler 
confederates,  rashly  tries  to  win  to  the  cause  the 
ruffianly  sea  captain  Volusius,  who  tells  all  he  knows 
to  Nero,  and  finishing  in  a  torture  chamber,  where 
the  captain  of  the  guard,  questioning  a  conspirator 
in  the  emperor's  presence,  suddenly  turns  pale  and 
begins  to  babble  inarticulately  :    he  himself  has  been 

*  Ann.  15.  51  sqq.  :   the  selected  '  pictures  '  will   be   found   in 
CO.  51  and  66. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    i8i 

in  the  plot,  and  his  victim,  weary  of  his  brow-beating, 
has  turned  upon  him  with  mysterious  smile  and  words 
not  at  all  mysterious  :  '  None  knoweth  more  of  it  all 
than  thou  —  repay  then  so  forgiving  a  master  !  '  ^ 
Two  magnificent  series  we  have  unfortunately  lost, 
depicting  the  fall  of  Sejanus  and  the  end  of  Nero. 
On  the  latter,  last  of  the  whole  gallery,  the  artist  must 
have  lavished  all  his  cunning  :  some  idea  of  the  treat- 
ment we  may  perhaps  gather  from  the  account  in 
Suetonius  ^  and  an  earlier  piece  of  Tacitus,  The  Last 
Visit  of  Vitellius  to  his  Palace  : 

On  the  capture  of  the  city,  Vitellius  has  himself  conveyed 
by  a  postern  to  his  wife's  house  on  the  Aventine,  .  .  . 
Then,  naturally  irresolute,  and  finding,  fearful  though  the 
prospect  ever5A\'here,  the  situation  of  the  moment  always 
the  least  satisfactory  (a  common  symptom  of  panic), 
he  returns  to  the  palace  —  a  dreary  desert,  where  even 
the  most  menial  slaves  had  departed  or  shrank  aside 
to  avoid  meeting  him.  The  solitude,  the  silent  halls  fill 
him  with  dismay  ;  he  rattles  at  locked  doors,  and  shivers 
at  the  sight  of  empty  apartments. ^ 

Of  single  pieces,  of  course,  there  are  countless 
examples.  The  two  most  vivid,  perhaps,  of  them 
come  one  from  the  Annals,  the  other  from  the  Histories. 
The  feast  of  reconciliation  with  Nero  is  over,  and 
Agrippina  is  saiUng  homeward  over  a  calm  sea,  under 
a  night  of  stars  ;  her  lady-in-waiting,  seated  on  the 
couch  at  her  feet,  can  talk  of  nothing  but  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  emperor's  surrender.  All  the  time 
the  loaded  canopy  above  them  is  intended  to  fall  upon 
them,  the  very  boat  so  contrived  that  it  may  suddenly 
collapse  and  fling  them  into  the  sea,  and  though  the 

^  Ann.   15.  66  neminem.  ait  pliira  scire  quant  ipsum  hortaturque 
ultra  redderet  tarn  bono  principi  uicem. 

«  Ner.  48,  49.  »  Hist.  3.  84. 


i82    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

canopy  fails  to  crush  and  boat  to  break  up,  mistress 
and  maid  will  be  precipitated  into  the  water,  Acerronia 
to  die  by  the  oars  and  boat-hooks  of  those  who  mistake 
her  for  the  empress,  Agrippina  by  her  swim  to  shore 
to  gain  but  the  briefest  respite. ^  The  scene  of  the 
other  picture  is  the  palace,  where  Otho  has  a  large 
party  which  is  broken  up  by  troops  from  Ostia  who 
have  been  given  cause  to  suspect  a  plot  against  their 
beloved  emperor  and  have  come  to  see  that  he  is  safe 
and  sound.  After  some  anxious  moments,  during 
which  the  guests  are  wondering  if  this  is  some  trap 
their  host  has  set  for  them,  and  their  host  fears  that 
his  own  hour  is  come,  he  gives  a  hint  that  all  shall 
withdraw :  they  stream  out  pell-mell,  lictorless 
magistrates  and  servantless  grandees,  old  men  and 
women,  to  grope  their  way  along  the  dark  streets, 
a  few  going  homeward,  but  most  seeking  securer 
refuge  in  the  houses  of  friends  and  dependants  ;  the 
troops  come  thrusting  in,  and  only  the  sight  of  the 
emperor,  mounted  on  a  dining-couch  and  appealing 
with  tears  in  his  eyes  to  their  esprit  de  corps,  allays 
their  excitement. ^  Mutinous  troops  are  indeed  a 
favourite  subject  of  our  author's,  and  the  times  he 
handles  afford  him  ample  scope  to  indulge  his  penchant.^ 
Particularly  powerful  is  his  description  of  the  march  of 
a  Roman  force  which  has  slain  its  gallant  commander 
and  surrendered  to  the  Galhc  aUies  of  Civilis  and  is 
ordered  to  proceed  to  Treves  : — 

In  the  midst  of  their  preparations  came  the  hour  of 
departure,  yet  more  bitter  than  it  had  been  in  anticipation. 
Inside  the  camp  their  humiliation  had  not  been  so  obvious  : 
the  open  country  made  their  disgrace  manifest.       The 

1  Ann.  14.  5.  *  Hist.  i.  81,  82. 

'  See  Ann.  i.  20,  32,  35  ;  Hist.  2.  29. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    183 

standards,  with  the  emperor  medallions  torn  off  them, 
looked  disreputable,  with  the  banners  of  Gaul  brilliantly 
displayed  on  either  side  of  them.  Silently,  like  some  long 
funeral  cortege,  the  column  moved  onward,  Claudius 
Sanctus  at  its  head,  a  man  whose  face  was  rendered  hideous 
by  the  loss  of  an  eye  and  was  yet  less  deformed  than  his 
soul.  Their  humiliation  increased  twofold  when  at  Bonn 
the  other  legion  broke  up  camp  and  joined  them.  The 
news  of  their  capture  had  got  abroad,  and  all  who  awhile 
since  had  shivered  at  the  name  of  Rome  came  hurrying 
up  from  field  and  farm,  streaming  out  from  every  side,  to 
gaze  with  ineffable  dehght  upon  a  scene  so  unprecedented.* 

Campaigns  and  tactics  read  somewhat  vaguely  in 
Tacitus,  but  there  is  no  lack  of  vividness  in  his  pic- 
tures of  actual  hand-to-hand  engagements.  The  most 
graphic,  I  think,  are  the  accounts  of  the  night  battle 
outside  Cremona,  2  and  the  street  fighting  that  followed 
the  entry  of  the  Flavian  vanguard  into  Rome  : — 

The  only  troops  that  got  into  difficulties  were  those  who, 
wheeling  left  by  narrow,  greasy  lanes,  towards  the  gardens 
of  Sallust,  tried  to  get  up  that  way.  The  Vitellians, 
mounted  on  the  garden  walls  and  using  stones  and  javehns, 
held  them  till  late  in  the  day,  when  they  themselves  were 
taken  in  flank  by  cavalry  that  had  broken  in  at  the  Colline 
gate.  There  was  also  a  fight  in  the  Campus  Martius. 
Fortune  and  the  numerous  victories  of  the  past  told  in 
favour  of  the  Flavians  ;  the  Vitellians  were  nerved  by  sheer 
despair,  and  though  flung  back,  rallied  again  in  the  city. 
The  city  mob  stood  by  watching  the  fray,  encouraging 
each  side  in  turn  with  cheers  and  clapping  of  hands,  as 
though  it  were  some  gladiatorial  show.  When  one  side 
gave  way,  they  would  clamour  to  have  those  who  had 
hidden  themselves  in  shops  or  taken  refuge  in  some  house 
routed  out  and  butchered,  themselves  securing  the  bulk 
of  the  plunder,  for  the  soldiers  were  busy  with  the  killing, 
and  the  spoils  fell  to  the  rabble.  The  whole  city  was  one 
scene  of  hideous  savagery  :    here  men  were  fighting  and 

1  Hisi.  4.  62.  »  Hist.  3.  22  sqq. 


i84    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

wounding,  there  thronging  baths  and  taverns  ;  pools  of 
blood  alternated  with  heaps  of  dead,  with  harlots  and 
men  sunk  as  low  as  harlots  standing  by.  Here  were  all 
the  vices  of  a  licentious  peace,  all  the  crimes  of  the  most 
merciless  of  sacks,  for  all  the  world  as  though  'twere  bedlam 
and  carnival  at  once  in  the  same  city.  .  .  .  Their  in- 
difference was  hardly  human :  not  for  a  moment  would 
they  forego  their  pleasures,  but  as  if  the  whole  affair  were 
an  additional  item  in  the  programme  of  the  Saturnalia 
they  revelled  and  took  their  joy — devoid  of  all  sympathy 
with  either  faction,  but  delighted  at  the  misery  of  their 
country.^ 

There  are  portraits,  too,  in  these  galleries,  for  the 
most  part,  however,  not  very  elaborate  pieces  of  work. 
The  estimate  of  Tiberius'  personality  at  the  end  of 
Book  Six  is  discriminating  and  subtle — 

His  character,  too,  has  its  distinct  epochs  :  one  that  from 
the  standpoint  alike  of  conduct  and  reputation  is  admirable 
— when  he  was  an  ordinary  citizen  or  in  office  under 
Augustus  ;  the  next  a  period  of  disguise  and  cunning, 
devoted  to  the  simulation  of  virtues,  and  lasting  as  long  as 
Germanicus  and  Drusus  lived.  Then,  so  long  as  his  mother 
lived  he  varied  between  good  and  bad.  So  long  as  he  found 
a  friend  in  vSeianus  or  was  in  fear  of  him,  detestable  as  was 
his  cruelty,  he  still  concealed  his  lustfulness.  At  the  end 
he  plunged  into  crime  and  dishonour  :  shame  and  fear  were 
flung  to  the  winds,  and  he  gave  heed  to  nothing  but  his  own 
inclinations." 

Another  striking  picture  is  that  of  Poppaea,  a  great 
advance  on  the  Sempronia  of  Sallust,  which  has 
obviously  inspired  it,  if  only  that  it  is  no  mere  ex- 
hibition piece  like  that,  but  introduces  us  to  an  im- 
portant figure,  whose  liaison  with  Nero  Tacitus  justly 
reckons  '  the  beginning  of  great  evils  for  Rome.'  ^ 
Generally  speaking,  however,  our  author  prefers  the 

1  Hist.  3.  82,  83.  *  Ann.  6.  51. 

'  Ann.  13.  45.     For  Sempronia  see  Sail.  Cat.  25. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    185 

thumb-nail  sketch,  flung  off  in  the  heat  of  the  narrative, 
breathless  parentheses  whose  coming  the  translator 
learns  to  dread  : 

Caecina,  a  dashing  young  soldier,  of  fine  physique  and 
unlimited  ambition,  a  man  that  could  talk  well  and  hold 
his  head  erect. 

Valens,  after  long  penury,  suddenly  grown  rich,  concealed 
but  ill  the  fact  that  his  present  estate  was  a  novelty  to  him, 
unable  to  control  desires  that  long  poverty  had  inflamed, 
and  proving,  after  the  indigence  of  early  years,  in  old  age  a 
spendthrift. 

The  purity  of  Livia's  family  Hfe  maintained  the  old 
traditions,  though  her  social  gifts  outstepped  the  limits 
which  the  women  of  ancient  times  approved.  A  tyrannical 
mother,  she  was  a  complaisant  wife,  well  assorted  in  fact 
with  the  diplomacy  of  her  husband  and  the  hypocrisy  of  her 
son.^ 

The  pregnant  epigrams,  acute  observations,  and 
scathing  comments  with  which  the  works  of  Tacitus 
abound  lose  terribly  in  translation,  but  the  effort 
must  be  made  to  give  the  reader  some  idea  of  so 
characteristic  a  feature.  Perhaps  the  most  famous 
of  all  is  the  British  chief's  epitome  of  Rome's  provincial 
administration,  '  where  they  make  a  wilderness,  they 
phrase  it  peace.'  ^  The  same  chapter  contains  another 
well-worn  tag,  '  the  unknown  always  seems  sublime.'  ^ 
Still  in  the  same  work,  the  Agricola,'^  we  have  '  Fame 
does  not  always  light  at  random  :  sometimes  she 
chooses  her  man,'  and  '  'Tis  a  human  trait  to  hate  one 

*  Hist.  I.  53,  66  ;   Ann.  5.  i. 

^  Agr.  30.  7  ubi  solitiidinem  faciunt,  pacem  appellant.  The  current 
version  '  make  a  solitude  and  call  it  peace  '  is  perhaps  from  Byron, 
Bride  of  Abydos,  2.  20. 

'  30.  4  omne  ignotum  pro  magnifico  est. 

*  9.  7  haud  semper  errat  fama  :  aliquando  et  elegit,  42.  4  propriunt 
humani  ingenii  est  odisse  quern  laeseris. 


i86    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

you  have  wronged,'  perhaps  the  most  cynical  of  them 
all,  and  presumably  the  original  of 

Forgiveness  to  the  injured  doth  belong, 

And  they  ne'er  pardon  who  have  done  the  wrong. 

Milton's  '  last  infirmity  of  noble  mind  '  seems  due  to 
John  of  Salisbury,  not  Tacitus'  saying,  '  the  passion 
for  glory  is  the  last  to  be  thrown  off  even  by  the  sage.'  ^ 
This  occurs  in  the  Histories,  which  contains  the  para- 
doxical criticism  of  Galba,  '  by  common  consent 
worthy  of  a  throne — had  he  never  filled  it.'  ^  The 
Annals  supply  the  ancient  equivalent  of  our  modern 
proverb  about  beggars  on  horseback :  '  the  more 
intolerant  because  he  had  himself  endured,'  said 
of  a  transport  officer  who  had  served  in  the  ranks. ^ 
Tacitus  often  shows  the  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
workings  of  the  human  heart  by  which  this  remark 
is  inspired.  Otho's  senate  fears  that  silence  will 
be  construed  as  disobedience,  and  frankness  will 
rouse  suspicion  :  as  for  flattery,  well,  Otho  has  been 
too  recently  a  courtier  not  to  recognize  it.^  The 
sight  of  Caecina's  wife  on  horseback  robed  in  purple 
gives  much  offence  :  '  we  all  have  a  tendency  to 
look  for  especial  moderation  from  those  we  have 
seen  in  our  own  station  of  life.'  ^  An  incompetent 
general,  rather  than  seem  dependent  on  his  staff, 
does  the  direct  opposite  of  what  they  advise.^  Vitellius, 
'  if  the  others  did  not  remember  he  had  been  emperor, 

^  Hist.  4.  6  etiam  sapientihus  cupido  gloriae  nouissime  exuitur. 

*  Hist.  I.  49  omnium  consensu  capax  imperii,  nisi  imperasset, 
'  Ann.  I.  20  eo  immitior  quia  tolerauerat. 

*  Hist.  I.  85. 

*  Hist.  2.  20  insita  mortalibus  natura  receniem  aliorum  felicitatem 
acribus  oculis  introspicere  modumque  fortunae  a  nullis  magis  exigere 
qtiam  quos  in  aequo  viderunt. 

*  Ann.  15.  10. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY.  AND  MEMOIRS    187 

would  easily  forget  the  fact  himself/  ^  Agrippina 
'  could  win  her  son  the  sceptre,  but  not  let  him  wield 
it.'  2  The  cynical  tendency  of  many  of  these  observa- 
tions is  unmistakable  :  Tacitus  is  indeed  a  master  of 
pregnant,  biting  satire.  '  The  foreshadowing  by  signs 
and  tokens  of  the  thrones  that  awaited  Vespasian 
and  his  sons — 'tis  a  story  we  credited  after  his  eleva- 
tion ; '  3  'So  now  there  were  three  statues  at  Rome 
decked  with  the  laurels  of  victory — and  Tacfarinas 
was  still  raiding  Africa ;  '  *  (Galba  sends  Vitellius 
to  govern  Upper  Germany)  '  he  was  son  to  the 
Vitelhus  that  was  censor  and  thrice  consul — 
credentials  enough,  'twas  thought ;  '  ^  (Otho  and 
Vitelhus  fling  the  foulest  charges  at  each  other)  '  both 
with  justice ; ' «  (Vitelhus'  generals  wait  for  the 
other  side  to  make  a  mistake)  '  a  substitute  for 
strategy  ;  '  '  (the  troops  are  about  to  destroy  Vienna 
when  the  inhabitants  to  some  extent  molhfy  them, 
and  the  general  distributes  largess),  '  thereupon  the 
age  and  standing  of  the  place  went  for  something.'  ^ 

Of  the  figures  of  speech  Tacitus  naturally  makes 
effective  use,  especially  oxymoron  and  paradox : 
'  a  decree  of  the  senate  that  was  severe  and — in- 
effective,'   '  a    tomb    that    was    unpretentious — and 

^  Hist.  3.  63  St  principem  eum  fuisse  ceteri  non  nieminissent,  ipse 
obliuisceretur. 

'  Ann.  12.  d^jilio  dare  imperium,  tolerare  imperitantem  neqiiibat. 

'  Hist.  I.  10  occulta  fati  et  ostentis  ac  responsis  destinatum  Ves- 
pasiano  liberisque  eiiis  imperium  post  fovtunam  credidimus. 

*  Ann.  4.  23  iamque  tres  laureatae  in  Vrbe  statuae — et  adhuc 
raptabat  Africam  Tacfarinas. 

*  Hist.  I.  g  A.  Vitellius  aderat,  censoris  Vitellii  ac  ter  consulis 
filius  :  id  satis  uidebatur. 

"  Hist.  I.  74  stupra  et  flagitia  in  uicem  obiectauere — neuter  f also. 
'  Hist.  2.  34  quod  loco  sapientiae  est,  alienam  stultitiam  opperi- 
bantur. 

*  Hist.  I.  66  addidit  Valens  trecenos  singulis  militibus  sestertios  : 
turn  uetustas  dignitasque  coloniae  ualuit. 


i88    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

likely  to  last,'  '  Burrus  stood  by  (at  Nero's  musical 
performance)  distressed  and — applauding  ;  '  (at  the 
obsequies  of  Brutus'  sister  Junia)  '  twenty  great 
houses  were  represented  by  masks  of  ancestors  that 
appeared  in  the  procession '  ,  .  .  but  '  Brutus  and 
Cassius  eclipsed  all  these,  just  because  their  images 
were  not  to  be  seen  ;  '  (Otho's  generals  profess  to  have 
mismanaged  the  campaign  in  the  interests  of  VitelHus, 
who)  '  accepts  their  tale  of  treachery,  and  acquits 
them  of — loyalty.'  ^  As  for  metaphor  and  personifica- 
tion, in  such  matters  Tacitus  is  nearer  to  the  writers 
of  modern  prose  than  to  Cicero,  or  even  Livy.  '  A 
nation's  hopes  and  fears  are  gathered  round  the 
palace,'  in  which  Galba  is  adopting  Piso  ;  the  characters 
of  Vespasian  and  Mucian  contain  elements  '  the 
blending  whereof  would  have  produced  such  a  regime 
as  never  yet  was  seen ; '  Caecina  *  seemed  to  have 
left  cruelty  and  profligacy  behind  the  Alps ;  '  the 
senate  in  the  presence  of  Vitelhus  says  nothing  against 
the  Flavian  leaders,  throws  all  the  blame  on  the 
troops,  and  '  treads  delicately  and  reluctantly  about 
the  name  of  Vespasian  ; '  Domitian  '  filled  the  role 
of  a  prince  so  far  as  the  practice  of  rape  and  adultery 
were  concerned.'  ^  The  most  striking  of  all  these 
figurative  expressions  is  the  least  translatable  :  rendered 
literally,  it  runs  : 

Whatever  the  day  Tiberius  donned,  Caligula's  demeanour 
corresponded,  his  conversation  was  little  at  variance. ^ 

We  can  speak  of  '  having  a  bad  day  '  and  of  '  wrap- 

^  The  passages  are  (in  the  order  of  the  text)  :  Ann.  12.  52  ;  Hist. 
2.  49  ;   Ann.  14.  15,  3.  76  ;   Hist.  2.  60. 

*  The  passages  are  Hist.  i.  17,  2.  5.  and  20,  3.  37,  4.2. 

^  Ann.  6.  20  qualem  diem  Tiberius  induisset,  pari  habitu,  haud 
multuni  distantibus  nerbis. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    189 

ping   oneself  in  gloom,'   but  it  seems  impossible  to 
reproduce  the  fusion  of  the  two  metaphors. 

At  this  point  it  seems  impossible  to  refrain  from 
saying  a  word  about  the  language  of  Tacitus.  The 
perusal  of  a  single  page  will  reveal  the  fact  that  he 
nkes  words  which,  save  in  so  far  as  they  have  already 
been  revived  by  those  inveterate  archaizers  Varro, 
Sallust,  and  the  elder  Pliny,  seem  to  have  fallen  into 
disuse  since  the  early  period  of  Latin  literature ; 
that  he  avoids  symmetry  and  parallelism  of  con- 
struction ;  and  that  he  is  exceedingly  brief.  I  have 
mentioned  Sallust  in  connexion  with  one  of  these 
tendencies  —  which  confront  the  translator  with 
problems  similar  to  those  that  beset  the  translator 
of  Virgil's  Aeneid  or  Horace's  Odes — but,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  germs  of  all  three  are  plainly  visible  in 
that  writer,  whom  our  author  styles  '  most  brilliant 
of  Roman  historians,'  ^  and  often  copies  in  thought 
or  phrase.  The  archaizing  of  Tacitus  is,  of  course, 
partly  the  fruit  of  his  jealousy  for  the  dignity  of  history. 
That  the  use  of  old-fashioned  words  '  that  would  not 
occur  to  any  ordinary  person  '  (as  Quintihan  puts  it  2) 
enhanced  the  solemnity  and  impressiveness  of  one's 
diction  was  a  common-place  of  rhetorical  instruction. 
It  was,  of  course,  an  instrument  that  called  for  extreme 
nicety  of  touch.  Quintilian  himself  quotes  Virgil 
as  an  instance  of  a  writer  who  used  it  successfully, 
but  the  pedants  of  Hadrian's  time  made  a  bludgeon 
of  it,  and,  even  under  Nero,  Seneca  complains  of 
people  who  speak  the  language  of  the  Twelve  Tables.^ 
Tacitus  no  doubt  showed  here  as  elsewhere  the  unerring 

^  Ann.  3.  30  rerum  Romananim  florentissimus  auctov. 

*  Inst.  Or.  8.  3.  24  qiiibus  non  quilibet  fuerit  usurus. 

*  Ep.  114.  13  duodecim  tabulas  loquuntur. 


190   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

judgment  of  a  master,  but  it  would  be  extremely 
difficult  to  prove  that  this  actually  was  the  case,  as 
certainly  any  attempt  to  reproduce  his  vocabulary 
by  the  use  of  Wardour  Street  English  would  be 
disastrous.  It  is  the  same  with  the  irregularities  of 
construction :  a  sentence  like  '  Mucian,  aware  by 
now  of  the  victory  at  Cremona,  and  lest  there  should 
be  pressure  from  without  at  two  different  points  of 
the  empire,  despatched  the  sixth  legion  against  the 
Dacians  '  ^  has  never  been  English  since  our  prose 
emerged  from  the  facile  laxities  of  its  very  earliest 
stages.  When  Tacitus  writes  in  this  way,  I  believe  he  is 
simply  testifying  to  his  admiration  for  Sallust — just 
as  that  writer  himself  is  reproducing  the  unevennesses 
and  confusions  of  construction  which  he  found  in 
Thucydides.  The  mannerism  appears  only  very 
slightly  in  Livy,  and  is  certainly  not  characteristic 
of  Silver  Latin  Prose  as  a  whole.  To  suppose  that 
Tacitus  chose  a  '  dislocated  '  style  as  peculiarly  appro- 
priate to  the  history  of  times  which  he  undoubtedly 
did  regard  as  out  of  joint,  seems  to  me,  in  view  of  his 
generally  Sallustian  tendency,  extremely  fanciful. 
As  for  his  brevity,  it  is  secured  by  means  essentially 
the  same  as  those  which  his  model  has  employed,  but 
no  careful  reader  can  fail  to  perceive  that  beside  a 
man  who  is  writing  after  nearly  a  century  of  protest 
against  the  redundancy  of  Cicero  and  Livy,  in  an 
age  which  affects  sentences  that  '  contain  more 
thoughts  than  words,'  ^  Sallust  shows  something  of  the 
timidity  of  the  innovator.  He  has  nothing  quite  so 
bold  as  the  strings  of  words  which  Tacitus  sometimes 
throws  at  us,  words  that  are  each  almost  the  equivalent 

^  Hist.  3.  4G. 

■  See  Sen.  Contr.  3  pr.  7,  Ep.  114.  i. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY,  AND  MEMOIRS    191 

of  a  clause,   as,  for  example,   in  the  description  of 
Pharasmanes  and  Orodes,  who 

recognize  each  other,  and  with  a  shout,  with  weapons,  with 
horses,  close  in  combat.^ 

An  extraordinary  instance  of  compression  occurs  in 
the  passage  where  Sejanus,  whose  royal  master  is  in 
danger  of  being  crushed  by  the  falhng  roof  of  a  cavern, 
is  said  to  bend  over  him  '  with  knee  and  face  and 
hands.'  ^  The  conception  seems  to  be  that  he  is 
using  knees,  head,  and  hands  ahke  in  the  effort  to 
hold  up  the  rocks,  and  Tacitus  has  endeavoured,  by 
employing  the  word  uultus,  which  often  denotes  '  look 
of  the  face,'  '  expression,'  to  give  us  a  hint  of  the 
anxiety  written  upon  the  faithful  henchman's  features. 

Pliny's  attitude  to  Tacitus  shows  that  the  historian's 
contemporaries  held  his  work  in  high  esteem,  but  the 
second  century  was  by  no  means  so  appreciative. 
Stylists  resented  the  discreetness  of  his  archaizing. 
Christians  his  criticisms  of  their  rehgion,^  the  ordinary 
reading  public  historic  ideals  which  despised  the 
piquancy  that  is  the  essence  of  the  biographies  of 
Suetonius.  By  the  third  century  it  was  necessary 
for  the  emperor  who  bore  his  name  to  take  special 
precautions  to  ensure  the  preservation  of  his  works. ^ 
A  hundred  years  or  so  later.  Gibbon's  favourite 
Ammianus  wrote  a  continuation  of  his  Histories, 
often  echoing  his  actual  language.  Sulpicius  Severus, 
Orosius,  and  Sidonius  °  seem  to  have  read  him,  but  the 

^  Ann.  6.  35  conspicui,  eoque  gnari,  clamore  telis  equis  concurrunt. 

^  Ann.  4.  59  genu  tittlfuque  et  manibus  super  Caesarem  suspensus. 

»  Cp.  TertuU.  Ad.  Nat.  i.  11,  2.  12. 

*  Vopisc.  Tac.  10.  3. 

^  Oros.  I.  10.  5,  Sidon.  4.  14.  I.     For  Sulpicius  see  Teuffel  441.  2. 


192    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

vague  reference  of  Cassiodorus  ^  in  the  sixth  century 
to  '  one  Cornelius '  as  authority  for  a  statement 
about  amber  which  stands  in  the  Germania  is  the 
last  trace  of  his  name  or  influence  until  the  end  of  the 
ninth  century,  when  Rudolf  of  Fulda  reproduces, 
without  acknowledgment,  some  passages  of  the 
Germania,  and  certain  Annals,  probably  written 
at  Mainz,  quote  '  Cornelius  Tacitus,  chronicler  of  the 
Roman  campaigns  in  Germany  '  as  having  mentioned 
the  River  Visurgis.  Then  darkness  sets  in  again  : 
John  of  Salisbury  only  mentions  our  author  as  a 
historian,  Petrarch  does  not  so  much  as  name  him. 
Boccaccio,  however,  had  a  MS.  of  Tacitus,  which  he 
used  for  his  De  claris  mulierihus,  and  in  1427  the 
indefatigable  collector  of  such  treasures  Niccolo 
Niccoli  was  in  possession  of  the  famous  Second  Medi- 
cean,  written  at  Cassino  and  our  sole  authority  for  the 
latter  half  of  the  Annals  and  the  Histories.  Poggio 
himself  was  promised  by  a  monk  of  Hersfeld  some 
Tacitean  works  as  yet  unknown  to  the  Renaissance  : 
Panormita,  indeed,  writing  in  1426,  speaks  of  Germania, 
Agricola,  and  Dialogus  as  already  discovered,  but,  as 
Poggio,  three  years  later,  is  still  inveighing  against 
the  deceptiveness  of  monkish  promises,  must  pre- 
sumably have  mistaken  the  list  of  '  works  obtainable  ' 
for  one  of  actual  '  dehveries.'  Knowledge  of  the 
minor  works  seems  to  date  from  1455,  when  Enoch 
of  Ascoli  returned  from  travels  in  Germany  and  the 
North  with  the  MS.  which  was,  apparently,  the  father 
of  all  existing  MSS.  of  them.^  In  1469  appeared  the 
editio  frinceps,  at  Venice,  lacking,  of  course,  the  first 

1  Vav.  5.  2. 

*  Save  in  so  far  as  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  one  quaternion 
of  the  MS.  discovered  at  lesi  is  actually  a  fragment  of  Enoch's 
MS. 


HISTORY,  BIOGRAPHY.  AND  MEMOIRS    193 

part  of  the  Annals,  which  had  not  yet  come  to  hght, 
and  also,  less  accountably,  the  Agricola.  There  is 
ground  for  supposing  that  the  part  of  Enoch's  MS. 
containing  the  biography  had  somehow  quite  early  got 
separated  from  the  rest :  anyhow,  it  was  not  till  1476 
that  it  appeared  in  print  at  the  end  of  the  Milan 
edition  of  the  Panegyrici.  Then  in  1509  was  dis- 
covered at  Corbey  the  First  Medicean,  our  sole  source 
for  the  first  part  of  the  Annals,  followed  in  15 15 
by  the  appearance  at  Rome  of  the  first  '  complete  ' 
edition,  entrasted  by  Leo  the  Tenth  to  the  care  of  the 
younger  Beroaldus. 

The  age  of  Machiavelli  was  not  likely  to  miss  the 
hint  as  to  the  political  importance  of  Tacitus  which  is 
dropped  in  the  preface  of  this  work.  The  Prince 
itself  occasionally  betrays  the  historian's  influence, 
and  he  is  definitely  quoted  in  the  Discorsi  and  Istorie 
Florentine.  Guicciardini  observes  that  from  him  sub- 
jects may  learn  how  to  live  under  tyrants,  tyrants  how 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  their  power.  Well  on  into 
the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  there  poured 
from  the  presses  of  Italy,  Spain,  Holland,  and  Germany 
a  veritable  torrent  of  '  Discourses,'  '  Observations,' 
and  '  Reflexions,'  packed  with  aphorisms  from  Tacitus, 
annotations,  and  excursuses  of  a  poUtical  character. 
BoccaHni  in  the  Ragguagli  di  Parnasso  often  quotes 
our  author,  and  makes  him  play  a  prominent  part  in 
several  of  the  gazettes.  In  France,  Montaigne  observes 
that  a  passage  in  Comines  is  identical  with  one  in  the 
Annals,  and  indulges  in  a  characteristic  digression  on 
the  merits  of  Tacitus.^  Henri  Quatre  had  a  version 
prepared  by  his  physician  le  Maistre  :  others  were 
dedicated  to  Richelieu  and  Anne  of  Austria.     Under 

^  Essais  3.  8. 
N 


194   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Louis  Quatorze  the  artistic  merits  of  Tacitus  begin 

to  be  recognized,  Corneille  writing  an  Otho,  Racine  a 

Britannicus.     In  England,  where  Bacon  often  quotes 

his  aphorisms,   Milton  maintains,   against   Saumaise, 

that  he  is  by  no  means  the  champion  of  absolutism  : 

it  is  in  the  mouth  of  a  fawning  courtier  that  the  words 

emphasizing  the  right  of  a  king  to  the  obedience  of  his 

subjects   are   placed.     Gray,    too,    nearly   a   hundred 

years  later,  beginning  an  Agri-ppina  and  finding  that 

he   has   written   fifty   lines   where   Tacitus   had   five 

words,  admires  the  historian's  '  detestation  of  tyranny 

and  high  spirit  of  liberty.'     This  view  now  begins  to 

prevail  across  the  Channel :   Voltaire  finds  our  author 

a  republican,  Mirabeau  and  Rousseau  translate  him; 

and   when   the   revolution   they   foreshadow   arrives, 

Madame   Roland   reads   him   a   fourth   time   waiting 

death  in  prison,  and  Desmoulins  in  the  Vieux  Cordelier 

takes  from  him  the  text  for  a  discourse  on  the  theme 

that  all  despotisms,  whether  of  monarch  or  mob,  are 

the  same.     No  wonder  then  that  we  find  Napoleon 

anxious  to  correct  his  '  inaccuracies,'  or  complaining 

of   the  way   he   has   blackened   the   memory   of   the 

emperors,     whilst    Chateaubriand    and    Chenier    are 

persecuted   for   speaking   of   him   as   the   avenger   of 

nations,  as  one  who 

en  trait  de  flamme  accuse  nos  Sejans 
et  son  nom  prononce  fait  palir  les  tyrans.^ 

*  For  the  history  of  the  works  of  Tacitus  and  their  influence  I 
have  derived  much  help  from  F.  Ramorino,  Cornelio  Tacito  nella 
itoria  della  coltura  (Milan,  189S). 


CHAPTER  VIII 
PHILOSOPHY 

OF  the  philosophic  books  of  a  Cornelius  Celsus 
(presumably  the  encyclopaedist  of  p.  277), 
which  are  mentioned  by  Quintihan,^  none 
has  reached  us;  those  of  Cornutus,  the  beloved  teacher 
of  Persius  and  that  Musonius  who  had  for  pupil 
Epictetus,  seem  to  have  been  written  in  Greek. ^  But 
the  work  of  Lucius  Annaeus  Seneca,^  one  of  the  most 
considerable  and  characteristic  products  of  our  period, 
was  done  in  Latin,  and  the  bulk  of  it  has  survived. 

Seneca  was  the  son  of  the  genial  author  of  the 
Controversiae.  Born  somewhere  about  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  era,  and  brought,  apparently,  a  mere 
child  to  Rome,*  he  had,  by  the  time  of  Caligula,  won 
sufficient  reputation  at  the  bar  to  rouse  the  imperial 
jealousy.  His  life  hung  by  a  thread  until  some  one 
assured  the  tyrant  that  his  rival  was  a  consumptive 
who  might  safely  be  left  to  complete  the  short  span  of 
life  allowed  him  by  the  doctors.^  His  physique  was 
indeed  not  powerful  :  from  youth  upwards  he  suffered 
not  merely  from  catarrhs,  but  from  a  complaint  which 
seems,  in  the  description  he  gives  of  it,  to  combine  the 

1  Inst.  Or.  10.  I.  124  (under  writers  on  philosophy)  scripsit  non 
paruni  niulta  Cornelius  Celsus,  Sextios  secutus,  non  sine  cultit  ac  nitore. 

*  So  certainly  the  only  one  we  possess,  in  which  he  allegorizes  a 
number  of  myths. 

^  He  himself  mentions  praenomen  and  nomen  in  Ben.  4.  8.  3. 

*  Consol.  ad  Helu.  19.  2.  ^  Dio  59.  19.  7. 

196 


196    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

symptoms  of  asthma  and  angina  pectoris.'^  Under 
Claudius  he  was  endangered  again,  by  the  hostihty 
of  Messahna,  through  whose  machinations  he  was 
banished  to  Corsica  as  the  paramour  of  the  emperor's 
niece  JuHa.^  The  fall  of  this  enemy  was  followed 
by  the  marriage  of  Claudius  with  Agrippina,  who  en- 
tertained the  highest  opinion  of  Seneca's  merits,  and 
securing  his  recall,  entrusted  him  with  the  education 
of  her  son  Nero.^  With  this  prince's  accession,  Seneca's 
life  becomes  part  of  Roman  history,  the  administration 
of  the  empire  lying  practically  in  the  hands  of  himself 
and  the  guard  captain  Burrus.  Now  it  was,  no 
doubt,  that  he  laid  the  foundations  of  his  colossal 
fortune  :  on  the  other  hand,  the  influence  which  he 
and  his  colleague  exercised  upon  the  emperor  in  this 
earlier  period  seems  to  have  been  in  the  main  dis- 
tinctly for  good.  But  by  a.d.  62,  when  Burrus 
was  dead  and  the  treason  prosecutions  began  to  be 
revived,*  he  realized  that  he  had  undertaken  the 
impossible  and  craved  permission  to  retire.^  The 
request  was  skilfully  refused,  but  from  now  onward 
Seneca  dropped  the  pomp  and  ceremony  of  a  great 
minister,  avoided  company,  and  went  httle  abroad.^ 
The  regime  of  Tigellinus  ensued,  and  the  emperor 
plunged  into  that  hfe  of  savagery  and  mountebank 
folly  which  in  a.d.  65  provoked  the  unsuccessful 
conspiracy  of  Piso.  It  was  said  that  some  of  the 
conspirators  had  intended  in  case  of  success  to  throw 
the  young  noble  aside  and  offer  the  purple  to  Seneca,' 
but  there  seems  to  have  been  no  e\ddence  of  his  com- 

1  See  for  catarrhs  Ep.  78.  i,  for  asthmatic  trouble  Ep.  57  passim, 
for  early  dehcacy  Consol.  ad  Helu.  19.  2  :   cp.  also  Ep.  46.  i. 
-  Dio  60.  8.  ^  Tac.  Ann.  12.  8. 

*  Tac.  Ann.  14.  51  and  48.  *  Tac.  I.e.  53-56. 

*  Tac.  1.0.  56  sub  fin.  '  Tac.  Ann.  15.  65. 


PHILOSOPHY  197 

plicity  in  the  plot.  None  the  less  promptly  came 
the  order  of  self-destruction,  which  he  obeyed  with 
courage  and  dignity. ^ 

All  Senecan  prose  that  we  possess,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  the  treatise  addressed  to  Marcia  and  the 
On  Leisure,  seems  to  have  been  written  after  the  death 
of  Caligula,  and  all  of  it,  with  the  exception  again  of 
the  work  examined  on  pp.  217  sqq.,  is  concerned  with 
the  philosophy  to  which  educated  men  had  now 
begun  to  look  for  that  guidance  in  the  conduct  of  life 
with  which  Roman  religion  so  conspicuously  failed  to 
provide  them.  Seneca  himself  mentions  philosophers 
who  held  in  certain  noble  houses  a  position  not  very 
different  from  that  of  the  family  priest  or  chaplain 
of  more  recent  times,  mitigating  the  grief  of  a  bereaved 
empress  or  attending  their  master  in  his  last  moments 
on  the  scaffold.  2  A  directorship  in  the  troubled  house 
of  Claudius  was  no  sinecure,  but  Seneca,  looking  about 
for  a  yet  wider  field  for  his  activities,  conceived  the 
idea  of  adapting  to  the  service  of  fashionable  society 
those  popular  addresses  on  philosophy,  commonly 
known  by  the  name  diatribe,  in  which  the  reply  to  the 
objections  of  imaginary  interlocutors  played  a  great 
part,  and  the  interest  of  even  the  most  flippant  was 
secured  by  piquant  anecdotes  and  telling  illustrations. 
It  was  mainly  a  matter  of  making  suitable  changes 
in  the  dress  by  means  of  which  the  Cynics  in  particular 
had  rendered  the  plain  and  homely  maxims  of  Stoicism 
attractive  to  the  man  in  the  street.  The  road  to  the 
gay  and  frivolous  hearts  of  Nero's  courtiers  must  be 
sought  by  way  of  the  head,  and  the  character  of 
Seneca's  Hterary  genius  promised  him  every  success 
in  the  finding  of  it. 

*  Tac.  Antt.  15.  60-64.         *  Consol.  ad  Marc.  4.  2,  Tranq.  14.  9. 


198    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

He  had,  indeed,  already  made  some  experiments 
in  the  direction  contemplated.  The  *Consolationes 
addressed  to  his  mother,  Helvia,  who  must  learn  that 
a  philosopher  finds  no  evil  in  exile,  and  to  the  powerful 
freedman  Polybius,  who  has  lost  a  brother,^  belong  to 
this  period,  and  are  philosophic  essays,  not  mere 
letters  of  consolation.  But  all  other  works  for  which 
an  approximate  date  can  be  found  were  composed 
after  the  return  from  banishment.  The  first  of  these 
is  the  *De  Breuitate  Vitae  [On  Life's  Brevity),  written 
before  the  extension  of  the  city  boundaries  that  took 
place  in  a.d.  49-50.2  The  De  dementia  [On  Clemency), 
with  its  reference  to  Nero  turned  eighteen,^  must 
belong  to  a.d.  56.  The  De  Bene/iciis  [On  Benefits) 
has  a  passage  too  full  of  contempt  for  Claudius  to  have 
appeared  before  his  death  in  a.d.  54  :  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  mentioned  in  one  of  the  letters.*  The 
Naturales  Quaestiones  [Physical  Problems)  mentions 
the  Campanian  earthquake  of  a.d.  63.^  In  the  *De 
Providentia  [On  Providence,  or,  as  its  second  and  more 
definite  title  runs,  How  it  is  that  inconveniences  befall 
good  men  in  spite  of  the  existence  of  Providence)  we  find 
the  author  contemplating  that  collective  work  on 
Morals  upon  which  in  the  Letters  we  see  him  actually 
engaged.^    And  these  last,  Epistulae  Morales,  take  us 

*  The  words  hie  [Claudius)  Germaniam  pacet,  Britanniam  aperiat, 
et  patrios  triwnphos  ducat  et  nouos  :  quorum  me  quoque  spectatorem 
futurum  .  .  .  promittit  dementia  (13.  2)  show  that  the  work  was 
written  in  exile,  about  a.d.  44. 

*  See  13.  8  Sullani  ultimum  Romanorum  protulisse  pomerium. 

3  I.  9.  I.  4  Ben.  I.  15.  5,  Ep.  81.  3.  *  6.  i.  10. 

"  Prou.  I.  I  hoc  commodius  in  contextu  operis  redderetur,  compared 
with  Ep.  106.  I  id  de  quo  quaerebas  ueniebat  in  contextum  operis 
mei.  (2)  scis  enim  me  moralem  philosophiam  uelle  complecti  et  omnes  ad 
earn  pertinentes  quaestiones  explicare,  108.  i  nee  uis  exspectare  libros 
quos  cum  maxime  ordino,  continentes  totam  moralem  philosophiae 
partem. 


PHILOSOPHY  199 

from  the  retirement  in  a.d.  62  to  a.d.  64/65. ^  The 
*De  Ira  {On  Anger),  the  *De  Constantia  Sapientis 
{On  the  Inviolability  of  the  Sage),  the  *  De  Vita  Beata 
{On  the  Happy  Life),  and  the  *De  Tranqnillitate  Animi 
{On  Peace  of  Mind)  are  certainly  post-Cahgulan  :  - 
on  the  other  hand,  the  first  cannot  have  been  written 
after  a.d.  52,^  the  second  and  fourth  must  date  before 
the  death  of  their  addressee  Serenus,  to  which  refer- 
ence is  made  in  one  of  the  letters/  and  the  third 
must  have  been  dedicated  after  the  De  Ira.^  The 
*Consolatio  addressed  to  Marcia,  daughter  of  Cremutius, 
three  years  after  the  death  of  her  son,  and  the  *  De 
Otio  {On  Leisure)  contain  nothing  that  bears  upon  the 
question  of  their  date. 

The  ten  works  to  which  I  have  prefixed  an  asterisk 
are  united  in  one  of  our  best  MSS.  under  the  mis- 
leading title  of  Dialogues.  In  only  one  of  them  {De 
Tranquillitate)  does  any  definite  interlocutor  appear, 
and  liis  part  is  confined  to  the  confession  of  certain 
weaknesses  and  the  first  of  the  seventeen  chapters  of  the 
essay.  In  the  others,  brief  and  colourless  sentences  in 
which,  exactly  as  in  Diatribe,  and  all  the  other  works  of 
Seneca,  an  imaginary  adversary  raises  objections  are  the 
only  interruptions  which  the  fluent  monologue  admits. 
It  seems  incredible  that  Seneca  himself  can  have  given 

*  Ep.  8.  1,2  (in  hoc  me  recondidi  etforas  clusi  .  .  .  nullus  mihi  per 
otiuni  dies  exit  .  .  .  secessi  non  tantum  ab  hominihiis  sed  a  rebus) 
suggests  the  retirement,  Ep.  91  has  for  text  the  fire  at  Lyons  which 
Tac.  Ann.  16.  13  shows  to  have  taken  place  about  a.d.  65.  There  are 
several  allusions  to  the  author's  advanced  age  :  see  especially  26.  i 
modo  diceham  tibi  in  conspectu  esse  me  senectutis  ;  iam  uereor  ne  senec- 
tutem  post  me  reliquerim,  83.  4  iatn  aetas  mea  non  descendit,  sed  cadit. 

*  All  speak  ill  of  Caligula  save  the  De  Vita  Beata,  which  itself  falls 
later  than  the  De  Ira  (see  note  5). 

*  For  its  addressee  Novatus  had  by  that  year  become  Gallio  of 
Acts  18.  12. 

*  63.  14.  '  Novatus  has  become  Gallio  :   see  Vit.  Beat.  i.  i. 


200   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

such   work  the  same  name   as  that  with  which  the 
dramatic  compositions  of  a  Plato  are  for  ever  connected. 
Seneca's    interests    he    almost    exclusively    in    the 
direction  of  moral  philosophy.     Even  in  the  Physical 
Problems  he  is  always  looking  for  an  opportunity  to 
abandon  scientific  research  and  embark  on  the  infinitely 
more  congenial  topic  of  the  wickedness  of  the  age.^ 
The  physicist  wishes  to  know  how  snow  is  formed,  but 
in    Book    Four    Seneca    has    hardly    formulated    the 
question  when  his  sensitive  ear  catches  a  protest  from 
his  class  :    '  Why  worry  about  a  thing  that  may  make 
one  a  better  scholar  but  scarcely  a  better  man  ?     Teach 
me,  not  how  snow  is  produced,  but  how  I  can  dispense 
with  it  to  cool  my  wine  !  '  2    And  the  complaisant 
professor  flies  off  into  a  jeremiad  against  luxury  which 
extends  to  the  end  of  the  book.     Nor  is  the  origin  of 
snow  again  discussed.     Book  Five  is  concerned  with 
the  winds,  and  itself  imperceptibly  merges  ^  into  a 
dissertation  on  the  avarice  that  prompts  men  to  go  to 
sea  and  put  themselves  at  the  mercy  of  these  uncon- 
trollable forces.     In  all  this  Seneca  is  but  carrying  out 
the  principle  he  elsewhere  enunciates  quite  plainly  : 
'  read  what  you  will,  but  apply  it  at  once  to  morals  !  '  "* 
Naturally  he  has  httle  sympathy  for  the  old  Stoic 
penchant    for    wire-drawn    discussions    and    ingenious 
syllogisms.     '  Mouse  is  a  syllable,'  he  quotes  on  one 
occasion,^  '  a  mouse  eats  cheese :   ergo,  a  syllable  eats 
cheese.     And  I  suppose  unless  I  show  the  flaw  in  the 
reasoning,  I  shall  get  my  cheese  eaten  up  by  one  of 
my  books  !  '     That  such  things  have  a  value  as  a  means 

^  Conuicium  saeculi  Sen.  Contr.  2  pr.  2,  where  we  see  that  the 
declaimers  also  indulged  in  it. 

*  13-  I-  '  The  transition  is  at  18.  4. 

*  Ep.  89.  18.  dummodo  quidquid  legeris  ad  mores  statim  referas. 

*  Ep.  48.  6. 


PHILOSOPHY  201 

of  mental  recreation  he  does  not  however  deny/  and 
himself  occasionally  condescends  to  discuss  whether 
good  is  a  body,  the  virtues  animals,  or  examines  such 
syllogisms  as  that  of  Zeno's,  which  ran  A  man  will  not 
trust  secrets  to  a  drunkard,  he  will  trust  them  to  a  good 
man,  no  good  man  then  will  he  a  drunkard.^  But  in 
most  of  the  cases  we  feel  that  he  is  only  anxious  to  show 
what  he  could  do  in  this  direction  if  he  cared  to  try, 
and  are  soon  put  off  with,  '  But  all  this  has  no  moral 
effect,  cures  no  vice,  breeds  no  \irtue,'  ^  or  some  such 
phrase.  The  old  philosophers,  he  thinks,  would  have 
accomplished  more  had  they  not  wasted  time  on  such 
matters,  which  '  make  philosophy  difficult  rather  than 
grand.'  *  They  in  their  turn  might  have  reminded 
him  that  consideration  of  style  never  distracted  their 
attention,  whilst  they  do  his,  in  spite  of  the  tribute 
he  pays  a  saying  of  Euripides — 

The  language  that  Truth  speaks  is  simple  still  ^ 
and  in  spite  of  a  letter  that  is  hardly  more  than  an 
elaboration  of  the  theme  /  would  have  my  words  profit, 
not  please.^    He  would  doubtless  have  replied  with  a 
passage  like  the  following  : 

In  writing  philosophy  I  certainly  hold  it  best  to  concen- 
trate on  thoughts,  and  speak  on  their  account  only :  one 
can  leave  them  to  find  the  words,  which  will  follow  easily 
enough  in  their  wake.  .  .  .  But  then  again,  when  my  mind 
is  exalted  by  the  grandeur  of  its  meditations,  it  begins  to 
be  nice  about  words,  and  is  anxious  that  its  tone  shall 
be  as  lofty  as  its  conceptions  :   I  forget  my  principles,  my 

^  Ep.  58.  25. 

'  Ep.  106.  3,  113.  I,  83.  9.  3  See  e.g.  Ep.  45.  9,  109.  17. 

*  Ep.  45.  4,  71.  6  id  agunt  ui  philosophia  potius  difficilis  quam 
magna  uideatur. 

^  Ep.  49.  12  ut  ait  ille  tragicus  '  uerilatis  simplex  oratio  est.'  (Eur, 
Phoen.  469  dwXoiis  6  fivdoi  rfis  dXTjdeias  ^<f>v.) 

*  Ep-  75- 


202    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

simplicity,  and  begin  to  soar  aloft  and  speak  with  accents 
not  mine  own.^ 

The  very  simpUcity  of  Seneca's  actual  vocabulary, 
which  is  that  of  ordinary,  educated  conversation, 
generally  avoided  by  the  strictly  literary  writers  of 
Rome,  2  serves  but  as  a  setting  to  bring  out  the  brilhance 
of  the  form  in  which  the  thoughts  are  expressed.  The 
epigrams  may  be  too  frequent  :  they  certainly  do,  as 
Macaulay  complained,  make  it  difficult  to  read  much 
at  a  sitting,  but  they  are  weU  conceived  and  well  put, 
and  their  abundance  is  that  of  a  rich  soil,  not  a  hot- 
house, '  If  Seneca  sparkles,'  says  Diderot,  '  it  is  as  the 
diamond  sparkles,  or  the  star — because  it  is  his  nature 
to  do  so.'  A  perusal  of  the  pages  of  such  admirers  as 
Montaigne  or  Burton  is  perhaps  the  easiest  way  of 
gleaning  Senecan  wit,  but  the  reader  may  Uke  to  see 
a  few  examples  translated  here  : 

A  man  who  has  taken  your  time  recognizes  no  debt : 

yet  it  is  the  one  he  can  never  repay  {Ep.  i.  3). 
You  cannot  read  all  the  books  you  have  :  have  then  only 

as  many  as  you  can  read  {Ep.  2.  3). 
Rules  make  the  learner's  path  long,  examples  make  it 

short  and  successful  {Ep.  6.  5). 
Man  at  his  birth  is  content  with  a  little  milk  and  a  piece 

of  flannel :  so  we  begin,  that  presently  find  kingdoms 

not  enough  for  us  {Ep^  20.  13). 
A  lesson  that  is  never  learnt  can  never  be  too  often 

taught  {Ep.  27.  9). 
They  that  mistake  life's  accessories  for  life  itself  are  like 

them    that   go    too   fast    in   a  maze :    their  very 

haste  confuses  them  {Ep.  44.  7). 
'Tis  not  the  belly's  hunger  that  costs  so  much,  but  its 

pride  {Ep.  60.  3). 

^  Tranq.  i.  13,  14. 

*  See  my  edition  of  the  Letters,  Intr.,  p.  xlii.  sqq. 


PHILOSOPHY  203 

Men  love  their  country,  not  because  it  is  great,  but 

because  it  is  their  own  {Ep.  66.  26). 
No  one  finds  his  proficiency  in  a  study  just  where  he 

dropped  it  {Ep.  71.  35). 
Life  is  a  play  :    'tis  not  its  length,  but  its  performance 

that  counts  {Ep.  77.  20). 
Retirement  without  the  love  of  letters  is  living  burial 

{Ep.  82.  3). 
Wealth  falls  on  some  men  as  a  copper  down  a  drain 

{Ep.  87.  16). 
Life  should  be  like  the  precious  metals,  weigh  much  in 

little  bulk  {Ep.  93.  4). 
The  good  man  is  Nature's  creditor,  giving  her  back 

better  life  than  he  had  of  her  {Ep.  93.  8). 
Nature  flings  us  into,  she  flings  us  out  of,  the  world  : 

more  than  you  brought  with  you  you  may  not  take 

away  {Ep.  102.  24). 
Abstinence  is  easier  than  temperance  {Ep.  108.  16). 
Savageness  is  always  due  to  a  sense  of  weakness  {Vit. 

Beat.  3.  4). 
To  forgive  all  is  as  inhuman  as  to  forgive  none  {Clem. 

I.  2.  2). 
A  multitude  of  executions  discredits  a  king,  as  a  multi- 
tude of  funerals  a  doctor  {Clem.  i.  24.  i). 
Virtue  rejects  a  mean  admirer :    you  must  come  to  her 

with  open  purse  {Ben.  4.  24.  2). 

Seneca's  love  for  antithesis  is  sufficiently  exemplified 
in  these  extracts  :  he  often  points  it  with  alliteration, 
which  can  generally  be  more  or  less  reproduced — '  Our 
predecessors  guides,  not  governors ;  I  class  slaves  by 
character,  not  charge '  ^ — but  seldom  so  happily  as  by 
Elyot,  when  in  the  Governour  he  renders  the  play  on 
anuli  and  animi  by  seals  and  souls. ^  Another  favourite 
trick  is  the  nietaphorical  use  of  some  everyday,  perhaps 

^  Ep.  33.  II  non  domini  nostri  sed  duces  sunt,  47.  15  non  ministeriis 
illos  aestimabo,  sed  moribus. 
*  Ben.  3.  15.  3,  Governour  3.  7. 


ao4    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

business,  phrase :  Hunger  won't  listen  to  rules,  it  duns 
us,  This  is  hut  gold-leaf  happiness,  Death  's  the  discharge 
of  our  debt  of  sorrow,  Our  ancestors  compounded  with  the 
persistence  of  woman's  tears  (by  allowing  a  year's 
mourning  for  a  husband),  No  choice  maxims — we  Stoics 
don't  practise  that  kind  of  window  dressing.^  Paradox, 
the  stock  weapon  of  social  reformers,  Seneca  wields 
at  least  as  well  as  any  of  them  :  To  know  how  to  despise 
pleasure  is  itself  a  pleasure  ;  A  coward  like  this  deserves 
to — have  his  life  prolonged  ;  To  he  philosophy's  slave  is  to 
he  free  ;  I  've  been  mixing  with  humanity  to-day,  and  feel 
the  less  humane  in  consequence  ;  Death  ?  '  Tis  one  of 
life's  duties.'^  The  use  of  illustrations,  especially  from 
the  sphere  of  medicine,  athletics,  naval  and  military 
life,  and  the  animal  world,  is  very  happy  :  Epileptics 
know  by  signs  when  attacks  are  imminent  and  take  pre- 
cautions accordingly  :  we  must  do  the  same  in  regard  to 
anger ;  ^  Pleasure  is  virtue's  accompaniment,  not  its 
object,  as  the  flowers  in  a  cornfield  please  the  eye,  but  it 
was  not  for  them  that  it  was  ploughed;"^  Athletes  endure 
blows  for  honour's  sake :  can  we  not  do  likewise,  who  seek 
no  mere  chapiet,  but  virtue  and  strength  of  mind  and  peace 
eternal  ?  ^  You  are  not  necessarily  a  deserter  if  you  devote 
yourself  to  research  :  he  who  does  garrison  duty  is  as 
much  a  soldier  as  he  that  is  in  the  fighting  line  ;  ®  Bassus' 
body  is  worn  out,  hut  his  mind  is  lively  :  a  skilful 
captain  sails  on  even  when  his  sails  are  torn  and  if  his 

^  Ep.  21.  II  uenter  praecepta  non  audit:  poscit,  appellat,  115.  9 
omnium  istorum  .  .  .  bratteata  felicitas  est,  Consol.  ad  Marc.  19.  5 
mors  dolorum  omnium  exsolutio  est,  Consol.  ad  Helu.  16.  i  ut  cum 
pertinacia  muliebris  maeroris  publica  constitutione  deciderent,  Ep. 
33.  3  non  habemus  itaque  ista  ocliferia  nee  emptorem  decipimus  nihil 
inuenturum  cum  intrauerit  praeter  ilia  quae  in  f rente  suspensa  sunt. 

*   Vit.  Beat  4.  2,  Ep.  loi.  12,  8.  7,  7.  3,  77.  19- 

2  Ira  3.  10.  '3.  *  Vita  Beat.  9.  2. 

6  £pv  78.  16".  ^  Tranq.  3.  5. 


PHILOSOPHY  205 

masts  go,  he  will  yet  try  to  keep  the  hulk  on  her  course  ;  ^ 
/  am  like  a  hook,  with  pages  that  have  stuck  together  for 
want  of  use :  my  mind  needs  unpacking  and  the  truths 
stored  within  must  be  turned  over  from  time  to  time,  to 
be  ready  when  occasion  demands  ;  ^  Human  society  is  like 
an  arch,  kept  from  falling  by  the  mutual  pressure  of  its 
parts  ;  ^  The  voice  of  flattery  affects  us  after  it  has  ceased, 
just  as  after  a  concert  7nen  find  some  agreeable  air  ringing 
in  their  ears  to  the  exclusion  of  all  serious  business.'^     The 
poets  too,  especially  Virgil  and  Ovid,  often  provide  a 
text  or  testimony  :    the  lines  in  which  Tityrus  praises 
the  benefactor  who  has  enabled  him  to  keep  his  farm 
are  quoted  to  emphasize  the  ingratitude  shown  by  men 
to  the  greater  bounty  of  heaven,  the  description  of  a 
thoroughbred  in  the  Georgics  is  compared  with  the 
Stoic  ideal  of  the  good  man.^ 

The  common  tendency  to  dismiss  Seneca's  work  as 
mere  rhetoric  surely  ignores  the  many  passages  in 
which,  inspired  by  the  ardour  of  some  favourite  topic, 
our  author  forgets  the  limited  capacities  of  the  audience 
which  he  is  addressing,  and  allows  himself  to  display 
real  feeling  and  an  eloquence  that  seems  to  me  to  have 
in  it  something  of  the  dithyrambic  flights  of  Plato 
himself — 

Here  was  one  that  had  attained  virtue,  that  had  perfected 
himself,  and  never  did  he  rail  at  Fortune  or  meet  trouble 
with  a  downcast  face,  but  reckoning  himself  a  citizen  of  the 
universe  and  a  soldier  faced  hardship  as  part  of  the  orders  of 
the  day.  Whatever  came  along,  he  shrank  not  from  it  as 
evil  that  had  drifted  his  way  by  chance,  but  rather  (accepted 
it)  as  especially  allotted  to  himself.  '  Whate'er  it  be,' 
he  cried,  '  it  is  my  task :  if  it  is  hard  and  irksome,  let  us  try 

^  Ep.  30.  3.  *  Ep.  72.  I. 

3  Ep.  95.  53.  *  Ep.  123.  9. 

*  Ben.  4.  6.  4  sqq.,  Ep.  95.  68,  69. 


2o6    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

our  mettle  upon  just  its  diflEiculties.  One  that  never  com- 
plained of  misfortune,  never  bewailed  his  lot,  was  of 
necessity  deemed  a  great  man  :  he  taught  many  others  to 
appreciate  his  character  and  shone  forth  like  a  lamp  in  the 
darkness,  drawing  upon  him  the  attention  of  all  men.  For 
a  man  of  peace  and  mildness  was  he,  one  that  neither  man's 
ways  nor  God's  dispensations  could  disturb.^ 

A  day  will  come  that  will  pluck  you  away  from  this 
lodging  you  share  with  that  foul  and  unsavoury  companion, 
the  belly.  From  him  hold  aloof,  so  far  as  may  be,  even 
now  :  be  no  friend  to  pleasure  save  such  as  is  bound  up  with 
things  decent  and  necessary  ;  begin  even  in  this  life  to 
rehearse  a  nobler,  higher  estate.  Some  day  the  mysteries 
of  nature  will  be  revealed  to  you,  yon  mists  will  be  dispelled 
and  bright  radiance  beat  on  you  from  every  side.  Picture 
then  the  splendour,  when  all  the  stars  commingle  their  fires 
and  not  a  shadow  mars  the  peaceful  sky,  and  every  quarter 
of  the  firmament  is  one  unvarying  brilliance.  Night  and 
day  are  changes  known  but  to  the  lowest  regions  of  the 
atmosphere.  You  will  own  then  to  having  lived  in  darkness 
when  you  behold  the  light,  pure  and  whole  as  you  yourself 
will  then  be  pure  and  whole,  that  light  divine  which  you 
see  now  but  dimly  through  the  narrow  corridors  of  the  eyes, 
and  yet  marvel  at  it  all  that  distance  away — how  will  you 
find  it  when  you  view  it  in  its  native  abode  ?  ^ 

Nature  was  not  so  unkind  as  to  make  it  easy  for  other 
creatures  to  live  and  leave  man  alone  dependent  on  so  many 
crafts.  .  .  .  We  were  bom  to  a  world  where  all  lay  ready  to 
hand  :  ourselves  have  made  it  difficult  by  our  contempt  for 
the  things  that  are  easy.  Shelter,  clothing,  warmth,  food, 
and  all  the  things  that  now  make  such  a  mighty  coil,  were 
not  once  far  to  seek,  cost  nothing  or  but  shght  trouble.  .  .  . 
Nature  can  provide  all  she  demands,  but  luxury,  deserting 
her,  every  day  spurs  herself  on,  waxes  stronger  every 
generation,  racks  her  brains  to  make  our  errors  worse.  .  .  . 
There  was  a  time  when  the  body  was  rationed  like  a  slave  ; 
now,  it  is  catered  for  like  a  master.  ...  It  is  lost  for  ever, 
the  limit  Nature  gave  us,  that  bounded  desire  by  the  reUef 


1  Ep.  120.  12,  13.  "^  Ep.  102.  27,  28. 


PHILOSOPHY  207 

required  :  we  have  reached  a  time  when  to  want  only  what 
is  enough  argues  lack  of  breeding  and  spirit. ^ 

Let  us  stop  their  lighting  up  of  candles  on  the  Sabbath  : 
the  gods  do  not  need  illumination,  and  soot  is  no  pleasure 
even  to  man.  Let  us  bid  them  cease  morning  attendance 
and  session  at  the  temple  doors  :  such  attentions  appeal 
only  to  human  pride.  He  that  knows  what  God  is  is 
worshipping  Him.  Let  us  bid  them  cease  bringing  Jupiter 
bath-towels  and  brushes,  holding  mirrors  up  to  Juno. 
God  needs  none  to  minister  to  Him  :  how  can  He,  that  Him- 
self ministers  to  mankind,  ever  at  the  disposal  of  all  ?  .  .  . 
Not  far  shall  a  man  go,  if  he  have  not  the  right  conception  of 
God,  as  possessor  of  all  and  giver  of  all,  one  that  does 
favours  without  thought  of  repayment.  .  .  .  The  first 
article  of  divine  worship  is  belief  in  the  gods  ;  the  second, 
recognition  of  their  grandeur,  their  goodness  —  without 
which  there  can  be  no  grandeur.  .  .  .  Worship  enough  has 
he  given  them,  that  has  imitated  them.^ 

And  some  think  to  have  conquered  fear  and  desire  even 
without  the  help  of  philosophy.  But  when  some  disaster 
catches  them  off  their  guard,  the  truth  is  wrung  from  them 
at  last.  Fine  words  are  forgotten  when  the  torturer  says 
'  Your  hand  !  ',  when  death  comes  close.  It  was  easy 
enough  to  challenge  misfortune  when  it  was  far  away,  but 
see,  here  is  pain,  which  you  said  could  be  borne  ;  here  is 
death,  against  whom  you  have  dehvered  so  many  a  fiery 
declamation  :  whips  are  cracking,  swords  flashing — 
Now  need'st  thou  spirit,  Aeneas,  and  stout  heart. 

And  stout  it  will  become  by  constant  preparation — if  you 
practise  not  mere  rhetoric,  but  the  mind.^ 

How  much  Seneca  owes  to  his  predecessors,  especially 
Panaetius  and  Posidonius,  who  did  so  much  to  clear 
away  the  paradox  and  severity  that  checked  the 
growth  of  Stoicism  long  after  it  struck  root  in  Roman 
soil,  we  cannot  define  :  time  has  played  havoc  with  the 
books  that  must  have  filled  liis  shelves.  But  on  what- 
ever he  borrowed  it  is  clear  that  he  has  imprinted  the 

1  Ep.  90.  18,  19.  »  Ep.  95.  47-50.  »  Ep.  82.  7,  8. 


2o8   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

stamp  of  his  own  great  personality  and  carried  out  in 
practice  that  assimilation  of  various  materials  into 
something  totally  different  from  any  one  ingredient 
which  he  preaches  in  one  of  the  most  interesting  of 
his  letters.^  His  interpretation  of  Stoicism  is  in- 
dependent and  hopeful,  broad  and  humane.  Bitterly 
as  he  deplores  the  decUne  of  learning,  he  has  supreme 
confidence  in  a  brighter  future  : 

A  day  will  come  when  long-continued  research  will  bring 
to  light  all  that  now  is  hidden  .  ,  .  when  our  descendants 
will  marvel  at  our  ignorance  of  things  so  obvious.  .  .  . 
Let  us  be  content  with  what  we  can  discover,  and  allow 
posterity  in  its  turn  to  contribute  towards  the  knowledge 
of  truth.2 

Of  course  one  who  speaks  thus  is  an  apostle  of  re- 
search, no  bUndfold  follower  of  authorities  : 

This  doctrine  of  mine  I  can  show  to  be  Stoic,  Not  that 
I  have  bound  myself  to  do  nothing  that  runs  counter  to  the 
rules  of  Zeno  or  Chrysippus,  but  it  so  happens  that  here  I 
can  follow  them  into  the  lobby.  To  vote  always  with  a 
particular  individual  is  to  be  a  partisan,  not  a  senator.^ 

Let  us  play  the  part  of  good  managers,  and  increase  the 
patrimony  that  we  have  inherited.  .  .  .  Much  remains  to 
be  done,  and  always  will  remain  :  he  that  comes  a  thousand 
ages  hence  wiU  not  find  himself  denied  the  opportunity  to 
add  to  the  store.'* 

It  is  ignominious  to  be  an  old  man,  or  within  hail  of  old 
age,  and  have  only  notebook  wisdom.  '  That  's  Zeno's 
view.'  And  what 's  yours  ?  '  That 's  what  Cleanthes 
said. '  And  what  say  you  ?  How  long  are  your  movements 
to  be  at  another  man's  disposal  ?  .  .  .  There  's  no  mettle, 
to  my  mind,  in  these  people  who  never  speak  for  themselves, 
but  are  mere  spokesmen  taking  cover  behind  somebody 
else,  never  venturing  at  length  to  carry  out  the  rules  they 
have  been  conning  so  long.^ 

1  84.  5.  "  Nat.  Quaest.  7.  25.  4  and  7. 

»  De  Otio  3.  I.         *  Ep.  64.  7.  *  Ep.  33.  7,  8. 


PHILOSOPHY  209 

Seneca  had  all  the  Roman  aptitude  for  satire  :  there 
is  notliing  in  Juvenal  to  beat  his  pictures  of  the  art 
collector  '  taldng  meticulous  care  over  the  arrangement 
of  his  bronzes  and  spending  best  part  of  the  day  in  poring 
over  bits  of  rusty  metal ; '  ^  the  Adonis  '  passing  hours 
with  the  barber,  holding  solemn  counsel  over  each 
separate  hair,  furious  if  too  much  is  cropped  off  his 
mane,  wilHng  rather  to  have  the  constitution  upset 
than  his  precious  curls ; '  ^  the  illiterate  book-buyer 
who  '  must  have  his  shelves  of  citrus  wood  and  ivory, 
and  buys  up  sets  of  authors  whose  writings  are  either 
unknown  or  condemned — only  to  sit  yawning  in  the 
midst  of  them  and  get  most  of  his  satisfaction  out  of 
bindings  and  title  pages. '^  But  although  he  admits 
once  *  that  when  one  reflects  on  man's  iniquity  one  is 
tempted  to  become  a  misanthrope,  he  hastens  to  add 
that  we  must  resist  such  temptations  and  look  upon  sin 
as  ridiculous  rather  than  hateful.  The  remedy  is,  as 
he  says  elsewhere,  to  keep  our  own  case  in  mind  and 
consider  if  we  have  not  ourselves  committed  the  very 
offence  that  has  angered  us.^    For  indeed  : 

There  is  not  one  that  can  wholly  acquit  himself  :  if  any 
says  he  is  without  sin  he  is  keeping  in  view  an  eyewitness, 
not  his  own  conscience.  ...  A  man  then  must  be  reformed 
for  his  o^^^l  good  as  well  as  that  of  others,  not  indeed  without 
censure,  but  still  without  anger.  Does  a  doctor  fly  into  a 
passion  with  his  patient  ?  ^ 

And    Seneca    himself    does   not    claim  to  be  even  a 

^  Breu.  Vit.  12.  2. 

*  lb.  3  {quis  est  istorum  qui  non  malit  rempublicam  turban  qnam 
comam  snam  ?). 

^  Tranq.  9.  6  armaria  e  citro  atque  ebore  captanti,  corpora  cotiquirenti 
aut  ignotorum  auctorum  aut  improbatonini,  et  inter  tot  milia  librorum 
oscitanti — cui  uoluminum  suonim  frontes  maxime  placent  tituliqtte. 

*  Tranq.  15.  i  occupat  animum  odium  humani  generis. 

6  Ira.  2.  28.  8.  «  Ira.  i.  14.  3,  15.  i. 

O 


210   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

doctor.  '  I  'm  not  so  brazenfaced,'  he  writes  to 
Lucilius,  '  as  to  set  up  for  a  physician  when  I  'm  an 
invaUd  :  no,  'tis  as  if  I  were  in  the  same  ward  with 
you  and  were  talking  over  our  common  infirmity  and 
its  cure.'  ^  How  enUghtened  he  was  on  the  question  of 
gladiatorial  shows  and  treatment  of  slaves  ^  is  well 
known  :  he  is  equally  liberal  in  respect  to  the  education 
of  women,  scouting  the  suggestion  that  Nature  has  not 
dealt  generously  with  her,^  and  lamenting  that  his 
father's  prejudices  made  it  impossible  for  his  mother  to 
more  than  dabble  in  the  Hberal  studies.*  No  ancient 
writer  not  actually  a  follower  of  Epicurus  can  have  done 
more  justice  to  that  philosopher's  character  and  creed  : 

I  hold,  though  many  of  my  fellow  Stoics  will  disagree 
with  me,  that  the  teaching  of  Epicurus  is  chaste  and  moral ; 
nay,  if  you  look  close  at  it,  austere.  Pleasure  with  him  is 
reduced  to  a  minimum,  a  mere  shadow,  and  he  prescribes 
the  same  conditions  for  it  as  we  for  virtue,  requiring  it  to 
obey  nature.  .  .  .  But  every  one  who  applies  the  word 
happiness  to  slothful  ease  and  the  alternation  of  lust  and 
gluttony  casts  about  for  a  good  name  to  which  to  appeal  in 
defence  of  an  evil  practice,  is  attracted  to  this  school  by  a 
tempting  word,  and  then  pursues  not  the  pleasure  which  he 
is  taught  but  that  which  he  knew  before.^ 

This  freedom  from  prejudice,  this  readiness  to  take 
help  where  it  offers  and  look  facts  in  the  face,  is  natural 
enough  in  one  who  was  a  statesman  as  well  as  a  philoso- 
pher, a  man  of  the  world  whom  experience  and  re- 
sponsibility had  taught  to  think  lightly  of  much  that 
even  the  later   Stoics  would  have  reckoned  among 

1  Ep.  27.  I  non  sum  tam  improbus  ut  curationes  aeger  obeam,  sed 
tamquam  in  eodem  naletudinario  iaceam  de  communi  tecum  malo 
colloquor  et  remedia  communico. 

^  See  Epp.  7  and  47. 

^  Consol.  ad  Marc.  16.  i. 

*  See  p.  256'.  6   Vit.  Beat.  13.  i,  2. 


PHILOSOPHY  211 

essentials.  That  at  times  his  broadmindedness  verges 
upon  laxity,  that  the  Pagan  moralist  ignores  standards 
by  which  the  Christian  must  always  be  bound,  one 
cannot  but  concede.  But  tliis  is  not  the  charge  most 
commonly  urged  against  Seneca,  whose  critics  lay 
stress  mainly  on  inconsistencies  between  preaching  and 
practice  :  he  praised  poverty,  but  enjoyed  a  fortune  ; 
he  declaimed  against  luxury,  but  had  five  hundred 
citrus  wood  tables  in  his  house  ;  '  Seneca,  in  his  books 
a  philosopher,'  as  Milton's  epigram  puts  it.^  And  yet 
it  is  not  easy  to  think  of  any  particular  incident  in  his 
life  that  he  could  not  have  justified,  at  any  ratepaUiated, 
out  of  his  own  writings.  In  the  De  Vita  Beata,  indeed, 
he  frankly  refers  to  such  accusations,  and  defends  him- 
self against  them  with  abiUty.  First,  from  a  general 
standpoint,  and  one  which  the  consistent  humility  of 
his  language,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  fully 
entitles  him  to  take  up.  '  I  am  no  sage,'  he  says,  '  and, 
as  a  sop  to  your  malevolence,  may  add,  never  shall  be. 
All  you  have  a  right  to  expect  of  me  is  that  I  should  be 
better  than  the  bad,  and  every  day  discard  somewhat 
of  my  folly.  These  charges  you  make  were  made  against 
Plato,  Epicurus,  and  Zeno  :  they  never  professed  to 
say  how  they  Hved,  but  only  how  they  ought  to  live.'  ^ 
Then,  coming  to  grips  with  a  particular  count  of  the 
indictment,  he  points  out  that  wealth  enables  the 
philosopher  to  put  into  practice  the  qualities  he  has 
developed,  to  work  out  his  theories.  To  refuse  riches 
the  entree  to  one's  house  is  a  confession  of  one's 
ignorance  of  the  art  of  using  them.^  An  argument 
surely  not  without  weight,  and  one  which  the  wealthy 
socialists    of    modern    times    cannot    despise    to   use. 

1  Hist,  of  England,  Bk.  2.  *  17.  3-18.  i. 

»  22.  I  ;    23.  3,  4. 


212    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

But  elsewhere  Seneca  goes  a  step  further.  '  The  wise 
man,'  he  says,  '  who  desires  to  cross  a  particular 
threshold  will  bribe  the  door-keeper,  exactly  as  he  will 
pacify  a  savage  dog  with  a  dainty  :  he  knows  that 
there  are  bridges  that  cannot  be  crossed  without 
payment  of  toll.'  ^  Here  we  have  the  germ  of  the 
principle  that  bids  us  to  do  a  great  good  do  a  little  ill,  the 
only  justification  for  that  pandering  to  the  softer  vices 
of  his  royal  pupil  by  which  he  sought  to  purchase  the 
power  to  repress  others  more  savage  and  more  obviously 
dangerous  to  his  country. 

In  some  of  his  letters  Seneca  implies  that  he  is  engaged 
upon  a  treatise  that  is  to  give  a  systematic  statement 
of  his  views  on  the  whole  field  of  moral  philosophy,  ^ 
but  nothing  of  the  kind  has  come  down  to  us.  How 
unsystematic  the  extant  works  are  (and  I  think  this 
is  what  Coleridge  had  in  mind  when  he  complained 
that  our  author  never  really  thought  anything  out  ^) 
may  be  gathered  from  the  analysis  of  a  typical  one 
like  the  On  Anger,  reckoned,  oddly  enough,  by  Diderot 
as  a  model  of  arrangement.  About  the  middle  of  Book 
Two  *  the  subject  matter  is  divided  into  the  two  heads 
How  to  avoid  becoming  angry,  and  How,  having  become 
angry,  to  avoid  doing  evil.  As  the  first  head  occupies 
the  rest  of  the  book,  one  naturally  expects  Book  Three 
to  start  with  the  consideration  of  the  second.  But  no  : 
it  begins  as  if  Book  Two  had  never  been  written, 
'  And  now  for  the  attempt  to  root  out,  or  at  least 
check,  anger,'  and  after  a  few  generahties  introduces  us 
to  a  new  classification  under  three  heads,  two  of  which 
are  those  of  Book  Two,  whilst  the  third  is  labelled, 
How  to  check  other  people  s  anger .^    The  explanation 

1  Const.  Sap.  14.  2.  ^  See  p.  I98«. 

»  Table-talk,  Juue  26,  1830.  *   18.  i.  *  5.  2. 


PHILOSOPHY  213 

of  all  this  slovenliness  lies  in  a  fact  to  which  the  reader's 
attention  has  already  been  drawn.  No  matter  whether 
Seneca's  work  purports  to  be  Dialogue  or  Dissertation, 
Scientific  Enquiry  or  Letter  (and  in  the  Letters  he  even 
takes  some  trouble  to  give  us  the  impression  that  he 
is  really  engaged  in  a  genuine  correspondence),  still 
the  model  is  invariably  the  diatribe,  with  the  easy, 
conversational  conditions  of  which  anything  like 
systematic  treatment  is  quite  incompatible.  In  the 
same  way  much  of  the  responsibihty  for  the  incon- 
sistencies which  abound  in  these  works  is  to  be  explained 
by  the  pecuhar  taste  of  the  circles  for  which  they  were 
written  and  which  had  learned  in  the  declamation  halls 
to  give  their  applause  to  a  spirited  attack  or  piquant 
phrase  without  troubling  their  heads  very  much  as  to 
its  harmony  with  the  general  hnes  on  which  the  case 
was  being  pleaded. 

Of  Seneca's  biography  of  his  father  and  a  treatise  On 
the  Maintenance  of  Friendship  only  the  most  meagre 
fragments  are  preserved. ^  A  considerable  quantity  of 
his  prose  has  been  completely  lost  :  Gellius  quotes  a 
twenty-second  book  of  the  letters  to  Lucihus,^  of  which 
we  only  have  twenty  :  other  writers  mention  ten  books 
of  letters  to  his  brother  Novatus,  essays  on  such 
themes  as  Duty,  Superstition,  and  Marriage,  geo- 
graphical accounts  of  India  and  Egypt,  and  pubhshed 
speeches.^     Its  popularity   was  such  that   Quintihan 

*  In  a  fifth  or  sixth  century  pahmpsest.  For  the  biography  see 
p.  151I. 

^  12.  2.  3. 

'  Letters  to  Novatus,  Priscian.  De  Fig.  Num.  (G.L.  3,  p.  410)  ; 
De  Officiis  (many  fragments  of  which  are  probably  buried  in  the 
Formula  Vitae  Honestae  of  Martin  of  Bracara :  see  Bickel,  Rhein. 
Mus.  60.  505  sqq.),  Diomedes  (G.L.  i,p.  366) ;  De  Superstitione,  ib.  ; 
De  Matrimonio,  Jerome  [Jouin.  i.  49)  ;  speeches,  Quint.  10.  i.  129. 
For  the  geographical  works  see  p.  293. 


214    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

tells  us  he  found  it  necessary  to  start  a  crusade  against 
it.i  Writers  like  Juvenal  and  Tacitus  seem  to  me  to 
show  direct  sign  of  its  influence.  But  the  archaizing 
school  of  Fronto,  which  thought  even  Tacitus  too 
sparing  in  his  use  of  old  Latin,  found  Seneca's  style 
positively  mean  and  bald.^  The  Christians,  on  the  other 
hand,  recognized  in  his  matter  the  workings  of  a  kindred 
spirit  :  ^  one  of  them  even  went  so  far  as  to  forge  a 
correspondence  of  fourteen  letters  between  him  and 
St.  Paul,  which  was  known  to  St.  Augustine  ^  and  is  still 
extant.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  his  reputation 
was  fully  equal  to  that  of  Cicero,  and  as  the  dawn  begins 
to  break  we  find  Dante  mentioning  both  together  in  a 
list  of  sages,  ^  Chaucer  quoting  him  more  frequently 
than  any  other  save  Ovid,*^  Petrarch  warmly  admiring 
and  addressing  to  him  one  of  his  letters  to  ancient 
authors.'  Even  after  Ciceronianism  has  begun  to 
choke  the  growth  of  classical  learning,  Erasmus, 
Muretus  and  Lipsius  deem  Seneca  worthy  of  their 
editorial  care.  To  his  teacher  Muretus  was  probably 
due  Montaigne's  enthusiasm  for  Seneca,  from  whom 
and  Plutarch  he  confesses  to  be  for  ever  like  the  Danaids 
drawing  water  and  emptying  it.^  In  England,  although 
Ascham  and  the  schoolmasters  were  under  the  ban  of 
Ciceronianism,  men  of  letters  showed  more  taste : 
Jonson  uses  Seneca  freely,  whilst  Lyly,  Nashe,  Daniel, 
Marston,  and  Lodge  often  quote  him,  the  latter  pro- 
ducing   the    first    complete    English    version — a    very 

^  lo.  I.  125  sqq.,  where  he  passes  an  elaborate,  and  on  the  whole 
just,  verdict  on  Seneca's  literary  and  intellectual  genius. 

2  Fronto,  p.  156  N. 

^  Tertull.  An.  20  [Seneca  saepe  noster),  Lactant.  Inst.  Diu.  4.  24, 
Jerome,  Vir.  III.  12. 

*  Ep.  153.  14. 

*  Infern.  4.  140  e  vidi  Orfeo  \  Tullio  e  Livio  e  Seneca  morale. 

*  See  T.  R.  Lounsbury,  Studies  in  Chaucer,  2.  267  sqq. 
'  Epp.  de  reb.  Jam.  24.  5.  *  Essais  i.  25. 


PHILOSOPHY  215 

bad  one — of  his  prose.  Bacon's  Essays  are  avowedly 
inspired  by  the  Letters}  Milton  recommends  the 
Quaestiones  for  school  use,  Cowley  has  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  his  work  in  general.  On  the  Continent, 
Comeille  and  Racine  draw  by  no  means  only  upon  his 
dramas,  whilst  Comenius  admits  the  writings  of  one 
from  whom  he  often  quotes  within  the  portals  of  his 
Latin  school.  In  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Enghsh  literary  taste  had  much  in  common  with  that 
of  Seneca's  day,  and  the  leading  intellects  are  all 
familiar  with  the  philosopher.  Bolingbroke,  censuring 
his  character,  confesses  to  reading  him  with  pleasure  : 
he  might,  in  view  of  the  debt  he  owes  his  writings,  have 
added  '  with  profit.'  Pope's  Essay  on  Man,  whether 
we  look  at  its  style  or  its  discursiveness  or  the  readers  it 
presumes,  is  very  Senecan.  Later  on,  Rousseau  and 
Diderot  pay  our  author  respectful  homage,  the  former 
often  quoting  and  borrowing,  whilst  the  latter  has 
written  a  thoughtful  and  discriminating  defence  of  his 
character  and  style.  But  in  England  his  influence  is 
by  this  time  dwindling,  and  with  the  nineteenth 
century  he  is  almost  everywhere  ignored  or  censured  : 
of  writers  belonging  to  this  period  who  have  avowed 
themselves  his  admirers  I  can  recall  only  De  Quincey 
and  Sainte  Beuve.^  The  warmest  eulogy  he  has 
received  in  modern  times  comes  from  one  who  was 
anything  but  an  avowed  admirer.  When  Swinburne 
in  an  essay  on  Jonson's  Discoveries  wrote 

We  find  ourselves  in  so  high  and  pure  an  atmosphere  of 
feeling  and  thought  that  we  cannot  but  recognize  and  rejoice 

1  See  his  mention  of  Seneca  in  the  dedication  to  Prince  Henry 
written  for  the  second  edition  of  1612. 

*  Essai  siir  les  rignes  de  Claude  et  de  Neron  et  sur  la  vie  ct  les 
Urits  de  Sewque,  1782, 


2i6   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

in  the  presence  and  influence  of  one  of  the  noblest,  manhest, 
most  honest  and  most  helpful  natures  that  ever  dignified 
and  glorified  a  powerful  intelligence  and  an  admirable 
genius, 

he  was  of  course  not  aware  that  the  passage  which  he  so 
highly  extolled  was  a  mere  cento  of  Senecan  epigram.^ 

^  For  fuller  details  as  to  the  history  of  Seneca's  prose  writings  and 
their  influence,  see  my  edition  of  the  Letters,  Intr.,  p.  xcvi. 


CHAPTER  IX 

PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE 

AN  amusing  little  work,  which  the  best  MS.  ascribes 
/  \  to  '  Annaeus  Seneca  '  and  entitles  '  The 
±  \.  Apotheosis  of  the  deified  Claudius,  a  satire,'  ^ 
must,  in  view  of  its  narrative  form  and  verse  insets,  be 
assigned  to  the  Menippean  variety  of  p.  65.  We  are 
told,  quite,  one  would  imagine,  in  the  style  of  the 
Roman  daily  journals,  how  the  emperor  lay  long  adying, 
how  his  spirit,  at  length  released,  sought  admittance  at 
the  gate  of  heaven,  how  there  was  hot  debate  among 
the  gods  as  to  whether  or  no  he  should  be  received,  how 
finally  sentence  of  deportation  to  the  nether  world  was 
decreed.  Arrived,  under  conduct  of  Mercury,  after 
being  on  the  way  convinced  of  his  death  by  the  sight  of 
his  own  funeral  procession,  Claudius  is  met  by  a  crowd 
of  noblemen,  victims  of  his  stupid  cruelty,  and  haled 
before  Judge  Aeacus.  He  is  convicted  unheard — 
'nothing  new  about  that  to  him,  but  he  thought  it  hard '  ^ 
— and  is  just  about  to  work  out  his  sentence  of  back- 
gammon, his  favourite  game,  but  to  be  played  here  with 
a  dice-box  that  has  no  bottom,  when  Caligula  arrives, 
proves  him  his  slave  by  virtue  of  many  drubbings  given 
him  in  times  past,  and  makes  him  over  to  Aeacus,  who 
appoints  him  clerk  to  the  court  of  the  freedman 
Menander.     A  passage  from  the  council  of  the  gods  may 

1  Quite  literally,  *  in  satire  form  '  (per  saturam). 

*  §14  Claudio  magis  iniquum  uidebatur  quant  nouum. 

217 


2i8    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

serve  as  a  sample  of  the  general  contents  and  style  of 
the  work.     A  god  is  speaking  : 

'  I  move  then  that  from  to-day  Claudius  be  a  god,  with  all 
the  rights  conferred  on  any  previous  creation,  a  minute  to 
this  effect  being  added  to  Ovid's  Metamorphoses.'  Opinion 
was  greatly  divided,  but  it  began  to  look  as  if  Claudius 
would  win.  For  one  thing,  Hercules  saw  that  it  was  his 
own  iron  that  was  in  the  fire,  and  went  about  whispering, 
'  Now  you  mustn't  stick  at  it  :  it  means  a  deal  to  me,  and 
some  time  when  you  want  something  done  I  'h  pay  you 
back  :  one  hand  washes  the  other,  you  know.'  Then  came 
Augustus'  turn  to  speak  :  he  got  up  and  made  a  fine  speech. 
'  The  House  wih  bear  me  out  when  I  say  that  from  the 
moment  I  became  a  god  I  have  never  spoken  a  word. 
Mind  your  own  business  is  my  motto.  But  I  can  no  longer 
hide  my  feelings  or  hold  my  anger,  which  my  sense  of 
decency  intensifies.  Was  it  for  this  that  I  won  peace  on 
land  and  sea  ?  Did  I  end  the  civil  wars  and  give  Rome  a 
constitution  and  fine  buildings  only  in  order  that — really, 
gentlemen,  I  don't  know  what  to  say  :  words  are  so  in- 
adequate to  express  my  disgust.  I  must  fall  back  on 
eloquent  Messala's  mot,"  I  blush  to  be  an  emperor."  Why, 
gentlemen,  this  feUow  here,  who,  you  'd  think,  couldn't 
startle  a  fly,  would  chop  off  heads  as  cheerfuhy  as  a  dog 
squats  down  on  its  hindquarters  !  '  ^ 

The  whole  piece  is  a  perfect  mine  for  colloquialisms, 
slang,  and  proverbial  expressions,  and  there  are  some 
interesting  hits  at  certain  classes  of  contemporary 
society,  fortune-tellers  who  never  let  a  month  go  by 
unmarked  as  the  one  destined  for  the  emperor's 
decease,  poets  with  a  passion  for  describing  sunrise  and 
sunset,  philosophers  who  agree  as  ill  as  the  city  clocks. ^ 
The  skill  with  which  the  author  has  introduced  references 
to  every  single  weakness  of  the  hero's  personahty,  as 
known  to  us  from  other  sources,  is  very  striking. 
Claudius'  physique  was  poor,  so  we  are  told  that  on 

*  §§  9  sqq.  *  §§  2,  3. 


2 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE  219 

dying  he  '  ceased  to  present  even  the  semblance  of  hfe.'  ^ 
His  articulation  was  feeble,  and  so  word  is  brought  to 
Jove  that  some  one  is  at  the  door  talking  a  language 
which  no  one  can  fathom,  but  which  is  certainly  neither 
Greek  nor  Latin. ^  Hercules,  the  traveller,  sent  to  try 
and  identify  it,  thinks  at  first  that  he  is  confronted  with 
a  new  monster,  a  thirteenth  labour  :  closer  inspection 
convinces  him  that  it  is  a  '  sort  of  human  being.'  ^ 
When  the  emperor  flies  into  a  rage  at  being  contra- 
dicted, '  for  all  the  notice  people  took  of  him  they  might 
have  been  his — freedmen,'  *  these  latter  having,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  always  had  their  master  under  their 
thumbs.  The  question  he  puts  to  the  ghosts  of  the 
men  whom  he  himself  has  sent  to  the  scaffold,  '  How 
came  you  here  ?  '  reminds  one  of  the  story  about  his 
asking  why  the  empress  had  not  come  to  table  on  the 
evening  of  the  day  of  Messalina's  death. ^ 

Seeing  that,  if  we  had  received  this  work  in  anony- 
mous form  and  been  set  to  find  a  likely  author,  our 
choice  must  have  lain  between  the  younger  Seneca  and 
Petronius,  it  seems  foolish  to  argue  that  the  Annaeus 
Seneca  to  whom  the  MSS.  assign  it  cannot  have  been 
the  philosopher,  because,  forsooth,  Tacitus  tells  us  ^ 
that  the  philosopher,  at  Nero's  bidding,  wrote  the 
funeral  panegyric  of  Claudius.  It  may  have  been 
at  Nero's  suggestion  that  he  composed  this  skit,  which, 
once  Nero  had  let  the  divine  honours  voted  to  his 
predecessor  drop  into  abeyance  (as  we  know,  from 
Suetonius,  he  did  ''),  was  admirably  adapted  to  fill  a 
dull  interval  in  one  of  those  festive  nights  to  wliich 

1  §  4  desiit  uiuere  videri. 

2  §  5.  '  §  5  diligentius  intuenti  uisus  est  quasi  homo.' 

^  §  6  putares  omnes  illiiis  esse  libertos — adeo  ■ilium  nemo  ctivabat. 
■^  §  13  :    cp.  Suet.  Claud.  39.         *  Ann.  13.  3.         '  Claud.  45. 


220    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Juvenal  ^  makes  reference.     To  adopt  such  a  suggestion 
would   doubtless   have   been   weak   and   indecent   in 
Claudius'   panegyrist,   but  Nero's  tutor  rnade  worse 
concessions  than  this  to  his  pupil.     Diderot  seems  to 
hit  the  mark  when  he  observes  ^  that  if  he  wished  to 
criticize  Seneca  at  all  in  the  matter,  ce  ne  serait  pas 
d' avoir  ecrit  la  metamorphose  de  Claude,  mats  d'en  avoir 
compose  I'oviiison  fimehre.     That  the  philosopher  did 
write    a   satire   on   the   deification   of    Claudius,    Dio 
definitely  assures  ^  us,  and  the  only  ground  for  doubting 
that  he  refers  to  our  work  is  afforded  by  the  fact  that  he 
gives  as  its  title,  not  Apotheosis,  but  Apocolocyntosis,  a 
word,  he  goes  on  to  imply,  coined  by  Seneca  on  the 
analogy  of  the  other.     Colocyntos  (gourd)  was  used  in 
vulgar  parlance  to  denote  a  person  with  a  weak  head, 
and  it  would  certainly  seem  more  natural  for  Claudius 
to  become  a  gourd,  in  this  sense  of  the  word,  than  a  god. 
The  mere  discrepancy  between  the  titles  is  not  very 
important,  as  a  fatuous  copyist  may  very  well  have 
substituted  the  obvious  word  '  apotheosis  '  for  Seneca's 
witty  neologism  :    the  very  redundancy  of  the  MSS. 
title  '  Apotheosis  of  the  deified  Claudius  '  is  suspicious. 
The  real  difficulty  is  that  our  work  contains  no  hint  of  a 
gourd  transformation.     The  only  solution  seems  to  be 
to  suppose  that  we  have  lost  the  concluding  portion,  in 
which  Seneca  will  have  told  how  the  emperor  escaped 
Menander,  very  much  as  Daphne  escaped  Apollo,  by 
metamorphosis  into  a  product  of  the  vegetable  kingdom. 
The  satire  is  seldom  quoted,  yet  it  inspired  Lipsius' 
Somnium,    a    skit    on    philosophers,    and    Boccahni's 
■Ragguagli  di  Parnasso.     Walpole  writing  to  Mason  in 

^  Juv.  4.  137. 

*  Essay  cited  on  p.  215,  Bk.  i,  Chap.  35. 

'  Dio  60.  35. 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE  221 

1732  has  discovered  it  and  is  much  impressed  by  its 
wit ;  Rousseau  translates  it.  Byron's  Vision  of 
Judgment  is  very  like  in  scope,  but  does  not 
borrow. 

Tacitus  has  left  us  ^  a  somewhat  detailed  account  of  a 
nobleman  named  Gaius  ^  Petronius,  who  behed  his 
reputation  as  a  systematic  debauchee  by  administering 
with  vigour  a  provincial  governorship  and  the  consul- 
ate, but,  quickly  relapsing  into  his  old  habits,  became 
a  sort  of  Master  of  the  Ceremonies  [arbiter  elegantiae) 
at  the  court  of  Nero,  and  then,  in  66,  being  accused  of 
treason,  put  an  end  to  liimself  in  a  pecuUarly  phlegmatic 
manner,  having  his  veins  alternately  opened  and  closed, 
whilst  he  banqueted  or  listened  to  the  reading  of 
frivolous  verses.  The  historian  makes  no  reference  to 
his  having  written  anything,  but  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  he  was  the  Petronius  who  composed  the  reaUstic 
novel  which  we  have  next  to  consider.  The  MSS. 
call  the  writer  Petronius  Arbiter,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  this  surname  is  whoUy  unconnected  with 
the  designation  arbiter  elegantiae  which  Tacitus  has 
given  to  the  courtier.  The  work  itself  is  exactly  what 
we  should  have  expected  from  the  pen  of  such  a  man. 
And  it  was  almost  certainly  written  under  Nero.  This 
forerunner  of  the  so-called  Picaresque  novel  must  have 
been  a  voluminous  work,  for  the  fragments  that  have 
reached  us  and  arc  by  no  means  inconsiderable  represent 
only  its  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  books.  They  are  un- 
fortunately fragments  not  even  of  these  themselves, 
but  only  of  an  extremely  clumsy  epitome.  The  motive 
connecting  them  seems  to  be  summed  up  in  the  verses 

^  Ann.  16.  18,  19. 

*  Plin.  Nat.  Hisl.  37.  20  and  Plut.  Adul.  19  call  him  'iitus. 


222    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

that  conclude  a  little  '  sonnet '  thrown  off  by  the  hero 
in  a  moment  of  depression  : 

Thy  bitter  wrath  o'er  land  and  tumbling  sea 
Priapus,  god  of  Hellespont,  I  flee  !  ^ 

How  the  divine  anger  has  been  excited  does  not 
appear,  but  Poseidon's  persecution  of  Odysseus  is  not 
more  relentless  than  that  which  Encolpius  suffers  at  the 
hands  of  the  amorous  god.  We  find  him  staying  with 
his  bosom  friend  Ascyltos  and  a  page-boy  Giton  in  one 
of  the  Greek  seaports  of  Campania,  and  at  the  moment 
engaged  in  discussion  with  a  professor  of  rhetoric, 
named  Agamemnon,  as  to  the  causes  that  have 
occasioned  the  dechne  of  eloquence.  He  himself  holds 
that  the  unpractical  tendencies  of  the  declamation 
schools  and  the  cultivation  of  the  purple  patch  are 
responsible.  Agamemnon  blames  the  parents  who  are 
eager  to  see  their  children  out  in  the  world  and  want 
rapidity  rather  than  solidity  in  education.  ^  We  have 
lost  the  connecting  paragraphs  between  this  scene  and 
the  next,  which  itself  is  too  outspoken  to  be  even 
summarized  here.^  The  third  scene  comes  with  equal 
abruptness,  disclosing  the  two  friends  ensconced  in  a 
corner  of  the  market-place  and  endeavouring  to  sell 
a  valuable  cloak,  acquired  evidently  by  very  doubtful 
means  in  some  earlier  chapter  of  the  story.  A  yokel 
and  a  woman  come  over  to  examine  it,  and  our  heroes 
recognize  in  a  ragged  shirt,  which  the  man  has  been 
trying  to  sell,  an  article  from  their  own  wardrobe,  in 
the  seam  of  which  they  know  a  considerable  sum  of 
money  to  be  concealed.  Whilst  they  are  wondering 
what  is  to  be  done,  the  woman  grabs  the  cloak  and 

1  §  1 39  me  quoque  per  terras,  per  cani  Nereos  aequor  \  Hellesponiiaci 
sequitur  grauis  ira  Priapi. 

*  §§  1-5-  »  §§  6-II. 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE  223 

charges  them  with  being  receivers  of  stolen  property. 
A  humorous  scene  ensues,  as  the  young  men's  counter- 
claim to  the  apparently  worthless  shirt  strikes  the 
bystanders  as  the  height  of  impudence.  Finally,  the 
yokel  flings  it  in  their  faces  and  makes  off  with  the 
cloak. ^  After  another  lacuna  and  another  licentious 
scene  ^  there  begins  the  longest  episode  that  has 
reached  us,  the  banquet  given  by  the  parvenu 
Trimalchio  and  attended  by  our  trio.^  Of  this  more 
will  be  said  anon.  Returning  from  it,  Encolpius  and 
Ascyltos  have  a  quarrel,  resolve  to  part,  and  prepare  to 
divide  up  the  belongings  which  they  have  hitherto 
shared  in  common.  But  Ascyltos  reckons  the  page- 
boy among  these,  and,  drawing  his  sword,  threatens  in 
the  true  Shylock  vein  to  help  himself  to  his  rights. 
When  at  length  Giton  is  called  upon  to  make  choice 
between  them,  he  decides  for  Ascyltos,  and  our  hero 
is  left  in  solitude,  bewaihng  in  elegant  verse  the  hollow- 
ness  of  friendship.*  Presently  we  find  him  in  a  picture 
gallery,  trying  to  forget  his  chagrin  in  the  contemplation 
of  the  works  of  Zeuxis  and  Apelles,  and  eventually 
accosted  by  an  old  man  who  explains  the  shabbiness  of 
his  exterior  by  reveaUng  the  fact  that  he  is  a  poet,  and 
develops  the  point  in  verse  as  well  as  prose.^  He  goes 
on  to  display  a  nice  taste  in  pictures,  and,  after  deplor- 
ing at  length  the  mercenary  tendencies  of  the  day,® 
illustrates  a  painting  of  the  sack  of  Troy  by  the  recital 
of  over  sixty  iambics  of  his  own  on  the  episode  of 
the  Wooden  Horse  and  Laocoon.''  Presently  people 
begin  to  throw  things,  and  they  beat  a  retreat  to  the 
shore  :  it  is  not  until  now  that  our  fragments  reveal 
the    newcomer's   name,    Eumolpus    (Mr.    Sweetsong). 

1  §§  12-15.  "  §§  10-26.  =>  §§  26-78. 

*  §§  79,  80.  -^  §  83.  «  §  88.  M  89. 


224    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Reproached  by  Encolpius  for  having,  in  the  two  hours 
they    have   been    acquainted,    '  spoken   the   language 
of  the  poet  more  frequently  than  that  of  the  human 
being,'   he  promises   to   abstain  from   '  this  form  of 
nourishment '  for  a  whole  day,  and  is  rewarded  by  an 
invitation   to   supper.     There   is   a   preHminary   visit 
to   the  baths,  where   Encolpius  finds  Giton  waiting, 
towels  in   hand,  for  Ascyltos.     As  the  boy  is  very 
penitent  and  pleads  that  he  had  felt  bound  to  decide  in 
favour  of  the  man  who  had  a  sword,  Encolpius  hurries 
him  home  to  his  lodgings,  leaving  Eumolpus  behind, 
spouting  poetry  as  such  as  he  loved  to  spout  it  within 
the  echoing  walls  of  the  bath.^     He  arrives,  however, 
in  time  for  supper,  during  which  he  persists  in  verse- 
making,  and  gives  such  offence  in  other  ways  that  his 
host  asks  him  to  '  get  out  quick.'     So  distressed  is 
Encolpius  at  yet  another  experience  of  the  hoUowness 
of  friendship  that  he  resolves  to  commit  suicide,  and  has 
just  reared  the  couch  up  on  end  against  the  wall  to 
serve  as  gallows  when  Eumolpus  and  Giton  rush  into 
the  room,  followed  almost  immediately  by  the  waiter 
with  the  next  course,  who,  observing  the  excitement 
and  the  erect  couch,  charges  the  company  with  the 
intent  to  decamp  by  the  window  and  bilk  the  landlord. 
Eumolpus  answers  with  a  blow  and  gets  by  return  a 
decanter  in  the  face  :   a  free  fight  follows  between  him 
and  the  whole  staff  of  the  flat.^    Just  as  peace  has  been 
restored   by   the  intervention   of   the   manager,    who 
knows  the  poet,  the  town-crier  arrives  with  Ascyltos, 
a   constable,    and   '  quite   a   fair-sized   crowd,'   giving 
notice  that  one  Giton  has  run  away  from  his  master 
and  that  a  substantial  reward  will  be  given  to  any  one 
bringing  him  back  or  betraying  his  whereabouts.     By 

1  §§  90-91.  *  §§  92-95- 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE  225 

the  time  the  search  party  reaches  Encolpius'  room,  the 
boy  has  got  under  the  bed,  and,  clinging  to  the  webbing 
'  as  Ulysses  to  the  ram  of  Polyphemus,'  escapes 
detection.^  There  is  a  lacuna  here,  but  it  is  clear  that 
Ascyltos  must  have  gone  off  discomfited — not  to 
reappear  in  our  fragments.  Eumolpus  and  Encolpius, 
friends  again,  repair  on  board  a  ship  bound  for  Taren- 
tum.2  After  a  brief  lacuna  we  find  our  party  terror- 
struck  by  the  discovery  that  the  captain  is  one  Lichas, 
whom  Encolpius  has  wronged  in  some  manner  no 
doubt  described  in  some  earlier  chapters,  and  one  of 
the  passengers  Tryphaena,  a  former  flame  of  the  hero's 
and  the  mistress  from  whom,  at  his  suggestion,  Giton 
had  absconded.  Eumolpus  persuades  his  companions 
to  have  their  hair  and  eyebrows  shaved  off  and  their 
faces  inked  over  so  as  to  give  them  the  appearance  of 
branded  slaves.  Hardly  is  the  operation  over  than  the 
enemy  come  on  deck.  They  have  dreamed  dreams,  the 
one  that  Priapus  has  assured  him  that  he  has  lured 
Encolpius  on  board,  the  other  that  Neptune  has  in- 
formed her  that  Giton  is  on  board.  '  No  reason  why 
we  shouldn't  look  round,'  says  the  captain,  and  a 
passenger  mentions  having  seen  certain  persons  shav- 
ing. Now  to  cut  hair  on  ship-board  was  regarded  as 
likely  to  bring  misfortune  on  the  ship,  and  the  offenders 
are  sentenced  to  a  flogging.  Encolpius  '  digested 
three  strokes  with  Spartan  heroism,'  but  Giton's 
howls  bring  Tryphaena's  maids  on  the  scene ;  they 
recognize  their  fellow-servant,  and  the  truth  is  soon 
out.^  Things  look  very  black,  but  Giton's  threat  to 
lay  violent  hands  upon  himself  brings  about  the  con- 
clusion of  peace.  Dinner  is  served  and  then  a  scene  of 
idyllic  tranquilhty  ensues,  during  which  most  people 

»  §§  96-98.  2  §§  98,  99.  3  §§  100-105. 

p 


226   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

try  to  catch  fish  or  gulls, ^  whilst  Eumolpus  tells  the 
story  of  the  Ephesian  matron  which  supplied  La 
Fontaine  with  one  of  his  best  contest  Suddenly  a 
storm  bursts  upon  them,  the  ship  begins  to  break  up, 
Lichas  is  washed  overboard,  Tryphaena  and  her 
attendants  get  away  in  the  boat,  Encolpius  and  Giton 
are  saved  from  the  waves  by  wreckers.  What  happens 
to  Eumolpus  is  not  clear,  but  he  is  found  later  on  by  his 
comrades,  apparently  still  in  danger,  scribbling  verses, 
of  course,  and  rather  resenting  the  interruption  of  his 
rescuers.  Next  morning  the  body  of  Lichas  is  washed 
up  at  their  feet :  of  Tryphaena's  fate  we  hear  nothing.^ 
The  adventurers,  proceeding  inland,  see  from  a  hill  the 
city  of  Croton  where,  they  learn,  the  Roman  art  of 
legacy-hunting  by  flattery  and  toadyism  is  practised 
to  perfection.  There  and  then  they  evolve  a  plan  of 
campaign  :  Eumolpus  will  pose  as  an  invalid  with  huge 
estates  in  Africa,  shipwrecked  in  the  course  of  a  voyage 
undertaken  to  dispel  his  grief  for  the  death  of  his 
son,  and  his  companions  must  be  his  slaves.*  So  little 
do  the  responsibihties  of  his  part  weigh  upon  the 
principal  actor  that  he  beguiles  the  monotony  of  the 
road  with  a  discourse  on  the  difficulties  of  poetic  com- 
position in  general  and  an  epic  on  the  Civil  War  in 
particular,^  followed  by  the  recital  of  nearly  300 
hexameters  as  an  illustration  of  his  theories.^  The 
rest  is  too  Rabelaisian  to  sketch  here  :  one  can  only 
mention  that  Encolpius  has  the  ill-luck  to  provoke  the 
god  of  love  yet  further  by  kilHng  a  goose  that  turns  out 
to  be  sacred  to  him,'  that  the  plot  thrives  well  enough 
until  the  ships  Eumolpus  pretends  to  expect  from 

1  §§  106-109.  "  §§  III,  112.  3  §§  ji^^  115^ 

4  §§iii6,  117.  »  §^ii8. 

«  §§1119-124.  '  §  136. 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE         227 

Africa  are  regarded  as  very  much  overdue,^  and  that 
at  the  end  a  few  tantaUzing  fragments  preserve  a  clause 
of  a  will — presumably  that  of  Eumolpus — by  which  a 
public  meal  off  the  testator's  body  is  made  obhgatory 
on  all  legatees,  and  some  sentences  from  a  speech  in 
which  the  condition  is  maintained  to  be  easy  of 
fulfilment.  2 

No  matter  whether  Petronius  is  reproducing  the 
graceful  dialogue  of  educated  Romans  or  the  un- 
grammatical  small-talk  of  tradesmen  and  parvenus, 
telling  an  elegant  story  or  describing  the  sordid  details 
of  lodging-house  Hfe,  he  is  always  complete  master  of 
his  style.  His  character-drawing  is  wonderfully  vivid 
and  skilful.  And  the  literary  criticism,  which  is  a  feature 
of  the  work,  is  by  no  means  conventional,  and,  in  the 
main,  sound.  Almost  all  he  says  in  regard  to  the  de- 
clamations is  thoroughly  to  the  point ;  perhaps  no 
utterance  of  any  ancient  critic,  save  Aristotle,  has  been 
so  often  quoted  as  the  Horatii  cunosa  felicitas , '  Horace's 
way  of  making  careful  art  look  like  nature,'  which 
Eumolpus  drops  on  the  road  to  Croton.^  The  mere 
fact  that  his  remarks  on  this  occasion  are  perfectly 
serious  should  have  made  it  impossible  for  any  one  to 
imagine  that  the  hexameters  which  they  preface  were 
intended  as  a  parody  on  Lucan's  Pharsalia. 

The  other  two  merits  appear  so  conspicuously  in  the 
Trimalchio  episode  that  I  have  excluded  it  from  the 
general  summary  in  order  to  examine  it  here  separately 
and  from  this  special  point  of  view.  Trimalchio  is  a 
member  of  the  uneducated  but  wealthy  class  which 
corresponds  so  closely  to  that  of  our  modern  parvenus. 
Whimsical  dishes  and  tasteless  entertainments  are  the 
main  feature  of  his  dinners.     A  peahen's  egg  contains 

1  §§125,  140,  141.  "    §  141-  *  §  "8. 


228    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

a  fully  developed  bird,  which  however  proves  to  be  a 
perfectly  edible  becafico,  rolled  up  in  yolk  of  egg.^ 
A  dish  is  marked  out  in  sections  representing  the 
signs  of  the  zodiac,  on  each  section  being  placed  some 
more  or  less  appropriate  article  of  diet — on  the  Lion,  as 
representing  August,  a  fig  that  needs  hot  sun  to  ripen; 
on  the  Twins  a  pair  of  kidneys.  The  guests  are  dis- 
appointed by  a  dish  that  seems  more  ingenious  than 
appetizing,  but  it  turns  out  to  be  the  cover  of  an- 
other dish  which  itself  is  full  of  dainties. ^  The  host's 
temporary  withdrawal  from  table  ^  sets  the  tongues 
free,  and  we  hear  the  bourgeois  chatter  and  imperfect 
grammar  of  his  cronies.  Dama  develops  the  theme, 
'  Very  cold  to-day,  but  a  hot  bath  has  been  my  salva- 
tion ; '  *  Seleucus  protests  that  a  daily  bath  isn't  good 
for  any  one,  as  it  wears  out  the  body  just  as  the  laundry 
wears  out  clothes.  He  himself  has  been  burying  an  old 
friend.  '  Eh,  dear !  'Twas  but  now  he  was  talking  with 
me  !  Inflated  bladders  we  are,  weaker  than  flies  or 
bubbles.  'Twas  the  doctors  killed  him — if  it  wasn't 
predestination.'  ^  His  neighbour  interrupts  with  strong 
criticism  of  deceased's  character,®  to  be  in  turn  taken  up 
by  Ganymedes.  '  Not  very  interesting  all  this.  No 
one  seems  to  trouble  about  the  price  of  bread  !  The 
market  officials  are  in  league  with  the  bakers  :  "do 
me  a  good  turn,  and  I  '11  do  you  one."  O  for  the 
noble  creatures  that  were  here  when  I  first  arrived ; 
that  was  life  if  you  like.     Safinius,  for  instance  ;   pure 

M  33-  '  §  35,  36.  =»  §  41- 

*  §  41  mundum  fngns  habiiimus  :  uix  me  balneus  calfecit. 

'  §  42  non  cotidie  lauor  :  baliscus  enim  fullo  est  .  .  .  fui  hodie  in 
funus.  homo  bellus,  tarn  bonus,  Chrysanthus,  animani  ebulliit,  niodo 
tnodo  me  appellaiiit  :  uideor  mihi  cutn  ilia  loqui.  heu,  eheu  !  utres 
rinflati  ambulamus,  minoris  quam  muscae  sumus.  ...  medici  ilium 
perdiderunt — immo  magis  malus  fatus. 

'  §  43. 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE         229 

pepper  he  was,  not  a  man  at  all ;  yet  he  'd  nod  back  to 
us,  and  knew  our  names,  just  as  if  he  were  one  of  us. 
WTiy,  I  've  seen  buUseyes  bigger  than  the  loaf  of  to- 
day. We  're  growing  backwards,  like  the  calf's  tail.'  ^ 
'  Oh,  cheer  up,  please,'  says  the  optimist  whom  the 
Nemesis  of  dinner-parties  has  set  next  him ;  '  Turn 
and  turn  about,  as  the  countryman  said  when  he  lost 
the  spotted  pig.  What  doesn't  come  to-day,  will  to- 
morrow. If  you  lived  somewhere  else,  you  'd  be 
sa\'ing  this  was  the  place  where  the  pigs  went  about 
ready  cooked.  And  the  mayor  's  giving  a  fine  show  of 
gladiators,  not  the  sort  of  thing  Norbanus  gave,  with 
twopenny  halfpenny,  worn-out  fellows  that  a  good  puff 
would  have  bowled  over.'  ^  Then,  suddenly  turning 
upon  the  professor  of  rhetoric,  '  Oh,  I  can  see  you 
saying  Why  's  this  old  bore  talking  P  Well,  because  you, 
who  have  the  gift  of  the  gab,  won't  use  it — and  then 
laugh  at  the  things  we  humble  folk  say.  One  day  I  '11 
get  you  to  come  and  see  my  little  place  in  the  country. 
We  shall  manage  to  find  something  to  nibble,  fowls  and 
eggs  and  the  Hke.  .  .  .  And  then  there's  the  Httle  bo}', 
getting  old  enough  to  be  your  pupil  .  ,  .  One  of  his 
masters  isn't  very  clever,  but  he  takes  a  lot  of  trouble, 

*  §  44  naryatts  quod  nee  ad  caelum  ncc  ad  terrani  pertinet,  cum 
interim  nemo  curat  quid  annona  mordet  .  .  .  aediles  male  eueniat  qui 
cum  pistorihus  colludunt  :  '  serica  me,  seruabo  te  '  .  .  .  o  si  haberemus 
illos  leones  quos  ego  hie  inueni  cum  primuyn  ex  Asia  ueni.  illud  erat 
uiuere !  .  .  .  memini  Safinium  .  .  .  piper,  non  homo  .  .  .  et  quam 
benignus  resalulare,  nomina  omnium  reddere  tamquam  unus  de  nobis, 
itaque  illo  tempore  .  .  .  asse  panem  quern  emisses  non  potuisses  cum 
altera  deuorare  :  nunc  oculum  bublum  uidi  maiorem  .  .  .  haee  colomu 
retrouersus  crescit,  tamquam  caitda  uituli. 

-  §  45  ore  te,  melius  loquere.  '  modo  sic,  modo  sic  '  inquit  rusttcus 
{iiarium  porcum  perdiderat).  quod  hodie  non  est,  eras  erit  .  .  .  iu  si 
aliubi  fueris,  dices  hie  porcos  coctos  ambulate,  et  ecce  habituri  sumus 
muHus  excellente.  .  .  .  Titus  noster  magnum  animum  habct  .  .  . 
dedtt  {Norbanus)  gladiatores  sesterliarios,  iam  decrepitos ;  quos  si 
suffiasscSy  cecidissent. 


230   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

and  can  teach  more  than  he  knows.'  ^  Trimalchio 
returns,  and  after  rnuch  talk  from  him,  and  the  reading 
of  the  estate  gazette, ^  there  is  an  acrobatic  performance, 
a  dialogue  in  Homeric  verse  between  companies  re- 
presenting Greeks  and  Trojans,  and  a  hoop  let  down 
through  a  hole  in  the  ceiling  with  golden  wreaths 
and  alabaster  jars  full  of  unguents  hanging  from  it.^ 
Niceros  tells  a  were- wolf  story,*  which  Trimalchio  caps 
with  an  instance  of  witchcraft  for  which  he  can  him- 
self vouch. ^  Presently  arrive  the  stone-mason  Habinnas 
and  his  wife  Scintilla,^  who  have  come  on  from  another 
party  :  the  former  is  already  drunk,  and  the  tone  of 
the  entertainment  begins  to  degenerate.  Fortunata, 
Trimalchio's  wife,  who  has  been  waiting  on  the  guests, 
sits  down  to  table  and  presently  shows  signs  of  a 
desire  to  dance ;  Scintilla  '  claps  her  hands  more  often 
than  she  ventures  a  remark,' '  the  host  invites  the  slaves 
to  join  them  at  table.  He  is  setting  them  all  free  in 
his  will,  he  says,  has  a  copy  brought  in  and  read,  and 
gives  Habinnas  an  order  for  his  tomb,  on  which  himself 
and  Fortunata,  with  her  little  dog  on  a  lead,  are  to  be 
represented,  with  a  clock  in  the  middle, '  so  that  any  one 
that  wants  to  know  the  time  will  have  to  read  my 
name.'     And  the  inscription  is  to  read  : 

Here  lies  Trimalchio,  on  whom  the  Augustal  priesthood 
was  conferred  by  proxy.  He  might  have  joined  any  of  the 
magisterial  staffs  at  Rome,  but  declined  the  honour.     God- 

^  §  46  uideris  mihi  dicere  '  quid  iste  argutat  molestus  ? '  quia  tu, 
qui  potes,  non  loquere.  non  es  nosirae  fasciae,  et  ideo  pauperorum 
uerba  derides  .  .  .  aliqita  die  te  persuadeam  ut  ad  iiillam  uenias  et 
uideas  casulas  nostras  :  inueniemus  quod  manducemus,  pullum,  oua 
.  .  .  et  iam  tibi  discipulus  crescit  cicaro  mens  .  .  .  est  et  alter 
(magisfer),  non  quidem  doctus,  sed  curiosus,  qui  plus  docet  quam  scit. 

^  §§  47-53-     For  the  gazette,  see  p.  232. 

^  For  these  items  see  §§  5^,  59,  bo. 

*  §§  61,  t>2.  *  §  63.  «  §  65.  '  §  70. 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE  231 

fearing,  staunch  and  true,  he  rose  from  nothing  and  left 
thirty  milhon  sestertii,  never  having  attended  in  all  his 
life  a  lecture  on  philosophy.^ 

Every  one  begins  to  weep,  and  an  adjournment  is 
made  to  the  bath.^  On  the  resumption  of  the  banquet, 
Trimalchio  quarrels  with  his  wife,  flings  a  goblet  at 
her — with  deadly  precision,  threatens  to  dispense  with 
her  marble  presence  on  his  tomb.  The  picture  is  a 
vivid  one  :  Fortunata  in  the  arms  of  the  shocked 
Scintilla,  her  bruised  cheek  pressed  to  the  cool  surface 
of  a  wine- jar  held  up  by  an  obsequious  slave,  Habinnas 
playing  the  part  of  peacemaker.^  Trimalchio  bursts 
into  tears,  then,  recovering  himself,  bids  the  company 
be  at  its  ease.  '  I  myself  was  once  as  you  :  merit 
has  made  me  what  I  am  ' — and  he  plunges  into  a 
retrospect  of  his  early  struggles,*  constantly  broken  by 
such  thrusts  at  his  wife  as,  '  What,  snorer  ?  Still 
whining  ?  I  '11  make  you  sorry  you  ever  were 
born,'  or  *  Didn't  the  fortune-teller  warn  me  I  was 
nourishing  a  viper  in  my  bosom  ?  '  ^  At  last  he 
stretches  himself  on  a  sofa  and  calls  for  a  rehearsal  of 
his  obsequies.  Horns  strike  up  the  funeral  march — 
but  horns  were  also  used  to  give  fire  alarms,  and  the 
brigade  soon  arrives,  hacking  its  way  through  and 
spreading  havoc  everywhere  with  axe  and  bucket. 
In  the  confusion  the  adventurers  effect  their  escape.* 

The  portrait  of  Trimalchio  is  a  masterly  combination 
of  fidehty  and  caricature.     He  has  no  regard  for  the 

1  §  71  C.  Pompeius  Trimalchio  Maecenatianus  hie  requiescit. 
huic  seuiratus  absenti  decretus  est.  cum  posset  in  omnibus  decuriis 
Romae  esse,  tamen  noluit.  piusjortis,  fideiis,  ex  paruo  creuit,  sestertitwi 
reliquit  irecenties,  nee  umquant  philosophum  audiuit.     vale  :  et  tu. 

*  §   72.  '  §  74-  *  §§  75-77- 

*  §  75  sterteia,  etiamnunc  ploras  ?  curabo  fatum  tuum  plores, 
77  '  iu  uiperam  sub  ala  nutricas.' 

*  §78. 


232    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

feelings  of  his  guests,  reminding  them  that  he  had  much 
bigger  folk  to  dinner  the  day  before. ^  Of  course  he 
loses  no  opportunity  of  parading  his  wealth.  If  silver 
plate  is  dropped,  it  must  lie  and  be  swept  up  later  with 
the  crumbs.  2  When  the  professor,  asked  to  disclose 
the  subject  of  the  declamation  he  has  that  day  delivered, 
begins  '  A  rich  man  and  a  poor  man  were  enemies,'  his 
host  interrupts  to  ask,  '  What  is  a  poor  man  ?  '  ^  And 
to  impress  the  company  with  the  vastness  of  his 
property  he  has  its  Gazette  read  out  during  dinner — 
and  an  interesting  document  it  is,  our  best  source  for 
knowledge  of  the  lines  on  which  the  ordinary  Daily 
News  of  Rome  was  run,  with  a  birth  column,  a  summary 
of  the  state  of  the  money  and  wheat  markets,  a  list 
of  convictions,  executions,  divorces,  and  fires,  poHce 
notices,  and  what  not.*  At  the  same  time,  he  would 
not  have  them  think  he  lacks  culture.  Music  accom- 
panies his  first  entrance  into  the  dining-room,  the 
removal  of  dishes,  and  the  pouring  of  water  over  the 
hands  of  guests  :  ^  in  the  bath  he  himself  '  murders  a 
music-hall  ditty.'  ^  He  has  '  two  hbraries,  one  Greek 
and  the  other  Latin ; '  ^  as  for  his  skill  as  a  con- 
noisseur of  chased  goblets,  '  I  wouldn't  part  with  it  for 
any  sum  of  money.  I  've  got  some  that  show  Cassandra 
kilUng  her  sons,  with  the  dead  children  so  well  done 
you  'd  think  they  were  alive ;  yes,  and  Daedalus 
shutting  Niobe  up  in  the  Wooden  Horse.'  ^ 

M  34-  M  34-  '  §  48.  *  §  53- 

*  §§32,  34,  31.  "^  §  73  {carrmna  lacerare).  '  §  48 . 

^  §  52  habeo  scyphos  urnales  plus  minus  centum — quemadmodum 
Cassandra  occidit  filios  suos,  et  pueri  mortui  iacent  sic  ut  uiuere  putes  ; 
habeo  capides  mille — ubi  Daedalus  Niobam  in  equum  Troianum 
includit  .  .  .  meumenim  intellegere  nulla  pecuniauendo.  Trimalchio 
manages  to  confuse  five  distinct  legends  :  it  was  Medea  who  slew 
her  children,  and  Pasiphae  whom  Daedalus  concealed  in  a  wooden 
cow. 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE         233 

The  words  novel  and  romance  have  no  equivalents 
in  Greek  and  Latin  Uterary  nomenclature.  The 
Milesian  tales,  which  Si  senna  translated  for  the  age  of 
Sulla/  were  probably  contes  such  as  form  insets  in 
Petronius'  book,  but  can  hardly  have  contained  the 
germ  of  such  a  book  itself.  The  so-called  romances  of 
men  like  Heliodorus  and  Longus,  the  dull,  pedantic 
models  of  the  Grand  Cyrus  and  Clelie  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  are  of  posterior  date  to  it,  but  the  fact  that  one 
or  two  of  its  situations  read  like  parodies  of  some  that 
occur  in  those  works  has  led  to  the  suggestion  that  the 
whole  motive  of  Petronius  was  parody  of  some  fore- 
runner of  theirs,  old  enough  for  him  and  his  contem- 
poraries to  have  read.  But  the  differences  of  style  and 
structure  are  much  against  this  theory,  and  the  pro- 
bability is  that  the  parodies  that  have  been  observed 
are  directed  against  some  source  on  which  those  later 
romances  drew,  such  as  the  new  comedy  of  Greece, 
rather  than  the  romances  themselves.  The  MSS.  then 
probably  represent  good  tradition  when  they  use  the 
phrases  '  satires  of  Petronius '  or  '  Petronius  the 
satirist '  ^  in  the  titles  which  they  prefix  to  the  work. 
Two  of  its  most  striking  features,  realism  and  interest 
in  Uterary  and  aesthetic  questions,  figure  prominently 
among  the  regular  ingredients  of  Roman  satire  in 
general,  and  to  these  resemblances  of  matter  com- 
parison with  the  fragments  of  Varro's  Menippean 
satires  and  the  A pocolocyntosis  enables  us  to  add  3'et 
more  striking  resemblances  of  form  and  style.  In  all 
three  compositions  verse  is  employed  as  well  as  prose. 
Too  httle  of   Varro's  satires  has  survived  to  enable 

1  Ov.  Trist.  2.  443  :   cp.  Fronto  62  N. 

*  Petronii   .    .    .    satirarum     liber,    Petronii  .    .    .    satirici    liber 
Petronii  .  .  .  Saiyri  fragmcnta,  Petronii  .  .  .  satiricon. 


234    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

us  to  guess  the  proportion  in  which  the  two  elements 
were  there  combined.  In  the  other  works  prose  gets 
the  Hon's  share.  In  Petronius'  verse,  which  is  much 
more  ambitious  than  that  of  the  Apocolocyntosis,  or,  for 
that  matter,  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  the  Menippea, 
hexameters,  elegiacs,  and  hendecasyllables  predominate. 
Many  pieces  contain  considerable  charm  and  elegance. 
Sometimes  they  are  narrative,  as  is  the  case  with  those 
which  describe  the  grove  in  which  Encolpius  keeps 
tryst  with  Circe  or  the  simple  cottage  of  the  priestess  of 
Priapus,^  at  other  times  they  illustrate  a  narrative, 
as,  for  instance,  where  a  lover's  meeting  is  compared 
with  that  of  Zeus  and  Hera  in  the  fourteenth  Iliad. ^ 
More  often  they  form  the  cHmax  of  a  prose  speech  or 
soliloquy,  or  amplify  some  maxim  just  enunciated  in 
prose  :  an  example  in  point  may  be  found  in  the  verses 
with  whrch  Eumolpus  develops  the  theme  '  love  of 
letters  makes  no  millionaires  '  : 

Who  trusts  himself  upon  the  main 
Doth  so  with  ample  hope  of  gain. 
Who  to  the  camp  or  battle  hies 
A  purse  of  gold  receives  for  prize. 
The  venal  toady,  flushed  with  wine, 
On  'broidered  purple  may  recline. 
Who  tempts  another's  wife  to  sin 
Knows  the  reward  he  hopes  to  win. 
'Tis  letters  only  that  must  ever 
In  icy  rags  and  tatters  shiver, 
And  with  vain  eloquence  implore 
Aid  of  the  arts  men  love  no  more.^ 

Once  or  twice,  where  a  speech  is  impassioned,  as  in 
the  case  of  Tryphaena's  appeal  to  the  angry  Lichas,  and 
Encolpius'  prayer  to  Priapus,  the  whole  is  put  in  verse.* 
Where  the  verses  are  not  meant  seriously,  there  is  not 
much  difference  between   the  methods  of  the  Apo- 

'  §§  131,  135-  '  §  127-  M  83.  *  §§  108,  133. 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE         235 

colocyntosis  and  those  of  our  work  :  both,  for  instance, 
introduce  Virgihan  Hnes  in  an  incongruous  context, 
and  both  indulge  in  mock-heroics.^  The  general 
resemblance  in  tone  between  the  novel  and  the  jeu 
d'esprit  cannot  escape  the  notice  of  any  one  who  passes 
from  the  perusal  of  one  to  that  of  the  other.  Both 
exhibit  the  same  lightness  and  lucidity,  the  same  vein 
of  elegant  raillery,  a  similar  power  to  enlist  the  language 
of  everyday  life  in  the  service  of  literary  composition  ; 
both,  in  short,  are  signal  examples  of  the  style  for  which 
Rome  coined  the  word  urhanitas,  and  which  French 
prosaists  have  known  so  well  how  to  employ.  Varro, 
too,  in  his  satires,  has  tried  his  hand  at  it — not  very 
successfully,  perhaps  ;  it  was  not  a  style  that  suited  his 
genius  too  well,  but  nevertheless  the  fragments,  pre- 
served to  us  in  most  cases  under  circumstances  by  no 
means  favourable  to  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  do 
not  unseldom  exhibit  a  gaiety  and  sparkle  positively 
astonishing  to  any  one  who  knows  the  author  only  from 
the  clumsy  and  wooden  sentences  of  the  greater  works. 
One  could  hardly  have  clearer  evidence  that  such  a 
style  was  the  conventional  one  for  the  Menippean 
satire  he  was  writing.  And  of  this  Menippean  satire 
our  novel  is  simply  a  development,  in  which  the  story, 
dialogue,  or  scene  that  forms  the  framework  of  an 
individual  piece  becomes  a  more  or  less  integral  portion 
— a  chapter,  one  might  say — of  a  continuous  narrative. 
The  process  would  resemble  that  which,  in  drama,  bore 
the  name  of '  contamination  '  and  involved  the  blending 
together  in  a  single  Roman  play  of  the  plots  of  two  or 
even  more  Greek  ones.  And  until  some  papyrus  is 
unearthed  that  contains  the  work  of  a  Greek  novehst 

*  See  for  Virgil  Petr.  132,  Apoc.  3,  for  mock-heroics  Petr.  108, 
Apoc.  7. 


236   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

as  unmistakably  the  model  of  Petronius  as  Homer  is  of 
Virgil  and  Thucydides  of  Sallust,  the  Roman  writer 
must  be  credited  with  the  originality  and  ingenuity 
necessary  for  its  conception. 

Petronius  is  occasionally  quoted  by  grammarians 
and  writers  on  metre,  whilst  Macrobius  and  Sidonius 
refer  to  him  from  the  point  of  view  of  subject  matter.^ 
In  the  Middle  Ages  he  seems  to  have  been  little  known, 
though  John  of  SaHsbury  often  quotes  him,  and  one  of 
the  MSS.  belongs  to  the  tenth  century.  About  1420, 
Poggio  discovered  a  MS.  in  Britain,  and  a  few  years 
later  another  at  Cologne  :  the  care  with  which  he  de- 
scribed his  find  to  Niccoli  shows  that  the  author  was 
a  novelty  to  Renaissance  scholars.'^  More  than  a 
a  century  later,  Scaliger  had  access  to  a  MS.  which 
contained  fuller  excerpts  than  any  of  those  previously 
discovered,  and  a  copy  of  this  is  still  in  existence.  All 
this  time  only  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Banquet  had 
been  available,  but  in  1650  there  was  found  at  Trau,  in 
Dalmatia,  a  MS.  which,  after  finishing  off  excerpts 
already  known  to  us  with  the  notice  '  Here  end  the 
fragments  of  Petronius  taken  from  Books  Fifteen  and 
Sixteen,'  proceeds  to  give,  without  any  title,  the  text 
of  the  Banquet  as  it  stands  in  all  later  editions.^  The 
discovery  took  place  at  an  opportune  date  :  in  France, 
at  any  rate,  much  interest  in  it  was  at  once  displayed. 
Bussy-Rabutin  made  good  use  of  the  adventures  at 
Croton  in  the  Histoire  Amour euse,  in  which,  to  the 
indignation  of  Louis  xiv.  and  his  own  undoing,  he 
narrated  the  frailties  of  certain  ladies  of  the  court ;  the 
Grand  Conde  attended  a  meeting  held  to  investigate 

'  Somn.  I.  2.  8,  Cayni.  23.  155  sqq. 

'  See  A.  C.  Clark,  Class.  Rev.  1908,  p.  178. 

«  Clark  I.e. 


PROSE-SATIRE  AND  ROMANCE  237 

the  genuineness  of  the  new  MS.,  St.  Evremond  expressed 
admiration  for  an  author  whose  character  had  more 
than  one  point  in  common  with  his  own,  La  Fontaine 
versified  the  anecdote  of  the  Ephesian  widow.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  century  one  Nodot  produced  a  greatly 
enlarged  Petronius,  but  the  additions,  which  professed 
to  come  from  a  MS.  recently  discovered  at  Belgrade, 
were  quite  unworthy  of  our  author,  and  were  prob- 
ably Nodot's  composition.  Voltaire  often  mentions 
Petronius,  remarking  somewhere  that  his  Trimalchio, 
as  w«  impertinent  de  la  capitate  du  monde  quite  eclipses 
an  impertinent  de  Paris  like  Le  Sage's  Turcaret,  and 
elsewhere  chaffing  the  King  of  Prussia  as  one  who  can 
appreciate  un  peu  d'impurete  quand  on  y  joint  la  purete 
du  style — a  turn  which  our  own  Burton  of  the  Anatomy 
anticipates  with  his  '  fragment  of  pure  impurities.'  ^ 
Burton  often  cites  Petronius,  especially  his  verses  : 
another  Englishman  who  knows  him  well  is  Dryden, 
who  not  only  respects  his  critical  utterances,  but  some- 
times echoes  scenes  and  phrases  of  his.^ 

1  Anatomy  of  Melanciioly  3.  2.  3.  4  (itself  presumably  from  Lipsius' 
axictor  impurissimae  impuritatis). 

»  Cp.  e.g.  Annus  Mirabilis  138  And  so  we  suffer  shipwreck  every- 
where ^--Vett .  115  si  bene  calcuhim  ponas,  ubique  naufragium  est. 


CHAPTER  X 
CORRESPONDENCE 

PUBLIUS,  the  son  of  Lucius  Caecilius  Cilo  some- 
time quadriuir  or  mayor  of  Comum/  was 
born  in  that  town  ^  in  a.d.  61-62,^  lost  his 
father  in  boyhood,*  and  was  probably  brought  up  by 
his  mother's  brother,^  the  Pliny  of  the  encyclopaedia. 
He  studied  rhetoric  under  Quintilian,^  and  in  a.d.  79, 
when  his  uncle  died  and  left  him  by  will  his  adopted  son 
and  heir,  abandoned  the  name  of  PubHus  CaeciHus 
Secundus  for  that  of  Gaius  Plinius  Caecilius  Secundus.' 
Next  year  he  began  at  the  bar  the  career  in  which  he 
soon  became  famous.^  In  due  course  entering  upon  a 
senatorial  career,  he  held  under  Domitian  the  quaestor- 
ship,  the  tribunate,  the  praetorship,^  and  the  presidency 

1  c.  I.  L.  5.  5279. 

"  Jerome,  Ad  ann.  Abr.  2126.  Pliny,  though  he  more  than  once 
refers  to  his  native  town,  never  names  it.  But  he  mentions  Comum 
and  its  lake  in  terms  of  peculiar  affection  (i.  3.  i,  2.  8.  i,  6.  24.  2  al.  : 
op.  too  4.  30.  i),  and  several  inscriptions  to  his  name  come  from  the 
neighbourhood.     That  his  uncle  was  a  native  of  Comum  is  certain. 

^  Ep.  6.  20.  5  agebam  duodeuicesimum  annum  (on  Aug.  24,  a.d.  79). 

*  There  is  no  mention  of  him  in  the  letters,  which  contain  warm 
allusions  to  the  memory  of  Pliny's  guardian,  the  Verginius  Rufus  of 
p.  158  :  seeesp.  2.  i.  8. 

^  The  account  in  Ep.  6.  16.  4  sqq.  suggests  that  Phny  and  his 
mother  lived  with  him. 

8  Ep.  2.  14.  9. 

'  Ep.  5.  8.  5  refers  to  the  adoption  ;  the  new  name  stands,  e.g., 
in  C.  I.  L.  5.  5262  (  =  Dessauer  2927). 

«  Ep.  5.  8.  8. 

»  See  Ep.  7.  16.  2.  The  chronology  of  the  letters  has  been  the 
subject  of  much  investigation  :  it  seems  generally  agreed  that  these 
magistracies  were  held  respectively  in  89/90,  91/92,  and  93. 

298 


CORRESPONDENCE  239 

of  the  military  treasures.^  Under  Nerva  he  became 
president  of  the  State  Treasury  :  ^  for  the  Consulate 
he  had  to  wait  until  the  year  a.d.  100,  in  Trajan's 
reign, ^  three  years  or  so  later  received  the  important 
priesthood  known  as  the  Augurate,^  and  then,  some- 
where about  III,  was  sent  out  to  govern  Bithynia.^ 
We  trace  his  activity  here  for  more  than  sixteen 
months,^  but  the  inscription  which  recorded  his,  in 
part  testamentary,  benefactions  ^  to  his  native  town 
does  not  give  Trajan  the  style  of  Optimus,  so  that  it 
looks  as  if  he  died  before  the  emperor's  assumption 
of  it  in  A.D.  114. 

Of  Pliny's  Panegyric  I  have  spoken  elsewhere,^  and 
am  here  concerned,  first,  with  the  collection  of  corre- 
spondence in  nine  books,  for  the  pubhcation  of  which 
he  himself  was  responsible.  The  247  letters  represent 
105  recipients,  of  whom  Tacitus  gets  eleven,  Fabatus, 
the  grandfather  of  PUny's  wife,  nine.  The  first  of  all 
is  addressed  to  Septicius  Clarus,  the  '  onHe  begetter  ' 
of  the  pubhcation,  and  informs  us  that  each  letter  has 
been  given  a  place  as  it  came  to  hand,  without  regard 
to  the  date  of  its  composition,  and  that  if  the  experi- 
ment is  successful  a  further  series  may  be  expected, 
made  up  of  letters  not  used  for  the  present  collection, 
and  any  others  that  may  by  then  have  been  written. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  these  letters  have  been 

1  The  office  is  recorded  in  the  inscription.     It  seems  to  have  been 

held  94-96  or  95-97- 

»  Ep.     10.     3A     I     alludes    to     this    office,    held     apparently 

98-101. 
»  Pan.  92. 

*  Ep.   4.  8.   I.      An  application  of  his  to  the  emperor  for  an 
appointment  of  this  kind  is  preserved  in  the  thirteenth  letter  of 

Book  Ten. 

*  The  date  is  rather  uncertain. 
«  In  the  letters  of  Book  Ten. 

7  C.  I.  L.  5,  cited  above.  •  See  p.  133. 


240    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

most  carefully  arranged,  so  as  to  ensure  variety  of 
theme,  and,  although  here  and  there  we  come  across 
a  letter  which  must  have  been  written  before  another 
which  stands  in  a  previous  book,  the  general  plan  is 
unmistakably  chronological.  Letters,  for  instance, 
that  describe  different  stages  of  an  occurrence  seldom 
come  in  wrong  order,  and  the  reader,  passing  through 
the  successive  books,  moves  steadily  onward  from  96/97 
to  108/109.  It  may  be  that  the  correspondence  was 
published  in  instalments,  that  Book  One  appeared  by 
itself,  and  that  Phny's  statement  as  to  his  neglect  of 
chronology  is  intended  to  apply  only  to  the  contents  of 
that  particular  book.  But  the  evidence  for  such  a  mode 
of  publication  is  not  convincing.  Nothing  surely  is 
proved  by  the  fact  that  in  a  letter  of  Book  Nine  PHny 
imphes  that  his  correspondent  Rufus  has  read  some- 
thing he  said  in  a  letter  to  Albinus  that  belongs  to 
Book  Six.^  For,  apart  from  the  fact  that  Albinus 
may  well  have  shown  Rufus  the  actual  letter,  the  re- 
marks with  which  an  editor  like  Pliny  credits  liis 
correspondents  are  not  necessarily  any  more  bona  fide 
than  the  '  You  ask  me  why  .  .  .'  with  which  Seneca 
often  starts  a  letter  to  Lucilius. 

Autobiography,  in  some  form  or  other,  a  man  like 
Pliny  was  bound  to  write.  No  one  ever  coveted  fame, 
posthumous  or  present,  more  ardently  ;  no  one  ever 
more  naively  confessed  the  weakness.  Always  appre- 
ciative of  the  compositions  of  a  friend,  he  admits  that 
he  is  apt  to  feel  a  particular  admiration  for  those 
parts  of  them  which  refer  to  himself.  ^    He  bridles  at 

^  Ep.  9.  19.  I  significas  legisse  te  in  quadam  epistula  mea  iussisse 
Verginium  Rufum  inscribi  sepulchro  suo,  etc.  :  this  epitaph  was 
mentioned  in  Ep.  6.  10.  4. 

'•  Ep.  9.  8  omnia  scripta  ttia  pulcherrima  existitno,  maxitne  tamen 
ilia  quae  de  nobis. 


CORRESPONDENCE  241 

the  mere  recollection  of  the  young  man  whose  clothes 
were  almost  torn  from  his  back  in  the  struggle  to  get 
into  court  and  hear  a  seven  hours'  speech  of  his.^  His 
indignation  at  finding  the  tomb  of  Verginius  Rufus 
unfinished,  ten  years  after  the  great  general's  death,  is 
fanned  by  the  reflection,  '  Can  I  hope  to  fare  better  ?  '  2 
What  joy  to  hear  that  a  stranger,  whom  Tacitus  has 
met  at  the  races  and  told  that  he  probably  knows  the 
speaker  from  his  hterary  work,  promptly  replied  with 
the  question,  '  Are  you  Phny,  then,  or  Tacitus  ?  '  ' 
The  autobiography  of  Lucihus  had  taken  the  form 
of  satire,  Pliny's  is  disguised  in  the  prose  letter  for 
which  Seneca  had  won  a  lasting  place  in  literature. 
There  is  not  a  piece  in  the  collection  but  is  either 
written  or  carefully  selected  and  carefully  revised  with 
an  e^^e  to  publication.  No  leader-writer  of  present 
times  could  outdo  our  author  in  the  art  of  evolving 
from  some  trifling  incident  a  succession  of  reflections 
that  are  only  sometimes  new,  but  always  interesting 
and  always  well  put.  It  is  indeed  difficult  to  imagine 
a  more  suitable  dress  for  Pliny's  matter  than  the  easy 
grace  of  his  Ciceronian-Silver  blend. 

The  contents  of  the  letters  fall  under  a  comparatively 
small  number  of  heads.  The  object  of  a  very  large 
number  is  to  present  us  with  a  favourable  picture  of  the 
author  as  a  husband,  a  master,  a  citizen,  and  a  friend. 
Separated  from  Calpurnia,  who  is  gone  to  Campania 
for  her  health's  sake,  he  writes  to  ask  her  to  send  one 
or  two  letters  each  day,  and  assures  her  that  he  misses 
her  to  an  incredible  degree,  his  feet,  at  the  times  when 
he  has  been  accustomed  to  enjoy  her  society,  carrying 

*  Ep.  4.  16.  2. 

'  Ep.  6.  10.  6  cui  non  uerendum  est  quod  uidemus  accidisse  Verginio  ? 

8  Ep.  9.  23.  2,  3. 

Q 


242    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

him  almost  mechanically  to  her  boudoir,  '  from  which 
I  turn  back  dispirited  and  melancholy  as  a  lover  who 
has  found  his  mistress  not  receiving.'  ^  Of  their  life 
together  he  gives  a  pleasant  description  in  a  letter  to 
his  aunt,  Hispulla,  especially  gratified  by  her  habit  of 
sitting  behind  a  curtain  when  he  gives  a  '  reading,'  so 
as  to  enjoy  without  embarrassment  the  applause  with 
which  his  efforts  are  received. ^  Pliny's  slaves  are 
allowed  to  make  wills,  which  he  faithfully  observes,^ 
and  their  illnesses  fill  him  with  tender  anxiety,  so  that 
he  begs  the  owner  of  a  country  house  that  is  famed  for 
the  quality  of  its  air  and  milk  to  allow  one  of  them 
who  is  slightly  consumptive  to  stay  there  awhile ;  ^ 
writing  to  ask  a  friend  to  keep  an  eye  on  a  little  farm 
that  belongs  to  his  nurse,  he  explains  his  anxiety  for  its 
welfare  by  the  remark,  '  'Tis  her  property — but  'twas 
I  gave  it  her.'  ^  He  is  no  absentee  landlord,  as  we 
gather  from  his  descriptions  of  visits  to  farms  where 
tenants,  obviously  encouraged  by  previous  experience, 
are  full  of  gloom  and  get  their  rents  reduced.^  A  man 
who  builds  a  temple  for  the  benefit  of  a  town  that  hes 
near  one  of  his  estates  '  is  hardly  likely  to  forget  the 
town  of  his  birth,  and  PHny,  not  content  with  providing 
Comum  with  a  hbrary  and  an  endowment  for  the  sup- 
port of  its  poor,  but  freeborn,  children,  helps  to  found 
a  university  there  : 

Last  time  I  was  home,  the  young  son  of  a  fellow-towns- 
man paid  me  a  call.     '  Do  you  study  rhetoric  ?  '  I  said. 

^  Ep.  6.  4.  5,  7.  5.  I  interdiu,  quibus  horis  te  uisere  solebam,  ad 
diaetam  tuam  ipsi  me,  utuerissume  dicitur,  ducunt  pedes  .  .  .  denique 
aeger  et  maestus  et  similis  excluso  a  uacuo  limine  recedo. 

-  Ep.  4.  19.  2  sqq. 

«  Ep.  8.  16.  I.  *  Ep.  5.  19.  7. 

*  Ep.  6.  3.  2  quod  {munusculum)  esse  quam  fructuosissimum  non 
illius  magis  interest  quae  accepit  quam  mea  qui  dedit. 

«  Ep.  5.  15.  8,9.  37.  2;   8.  2.  I,  2. 


CORRESPONDENCE  243 

'  Oh,  yes,'  he  repUed.  '  And  where  ?  '  'At  Milan.'  '  Why 
not  here  ?  '  His  father  was  standing  by  (he  had  brought 
the  boy,  in  fact),  and  now  put  in  :  '  We  've  no  teachers 
here.'  '  But  why  not  ?  '  said  I,  '  Why,  you  fathers  (and 
as  luck  would  have  it,  there  were  several  within  earshot) 
would  surely  find  it  better  to  have  your  children  studying 
here.  Where  could  they  have  a  pleasanter  time  than  in 
their  native  town,  better  discipline  than  under  their  pa- 
rents' eyes,  cheaper  living  than  at  home  ?  It  would  be  no 
trouble  to  get  up  a  subscription  and  engage  teachers,  and 
what  you  spend  now  on  their  lodgings,  fares,  and  general 
expenses  would  go  far  to  swell  the  fees.  Look  here  :  I  've 
no  children  yet,  but  I  '11  give  a  third  of  any  total  you  resolve 
to  contribute.  I  'd  give  the  whole  amount,  but  I  'm  afraid 
we  should  have  the  scheme  ruined  by  favouritism  then.  .  .  . 
The  parents  must  choose  the  teachers  :  they  '11  see  to  it 
that  my  share  goes  to  the  right  man,  as  theirs  has  to  go  to 
him  too.  ...  I  only  hope  you  '11  get  such  professors  that 
people  will  come  from  all  around  to  study  here.'  ^ 

Numerous  letters  of  recommendation  ^  attest  Phny's 
devotion  to  his  friends  :  in  others  we  find  him  under- 
taking to  provide  them  with  the  wherewithal  of  a 
daughter's  dowry  ^  or  entrance  into  the  equestrian 
order,*  to  sell  land  at  a  nominal  price  to  the  sister  ol 
one  who  is  dead,^  to  find  a  tutor  for  the  same  man's 
nephew.^  No  mission  seems  too  delicate  for  him  to 
undertake  in  their  cause  :  once,  when  a  man  who  owes 
a  friend  of  his  some  money,  dies  without  providing  for 
the  repayment,  he  asks  another  friend,  well  acquainted 
with  the  deceased  s  heir,  to  do  his  best  to  get  the  matter 
set  right.' 

Another  considerable  section  of  these  letters  is  con- 
cerned with  their  author's  pubhc  career.  Important 
cases  in  which  he  w^as  briefed  are  reported  at  con- 

»  Ep.  4.  13.  3  sqq.  »  See  e.g.  3.  2,  4.  13,  7.  22  and  31. 

=•  Ep.  6.  32.  *  Ep.  I.  19. 

•  Ep.  7.  11.  •  Ep.  3.  3.  '  Ep.  6.  8. 


244   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

siderable  length/  everything  done  to  blacken  the 
character  of  Aquilius  Regulus,  in  whom  the  new  Cicero 
recognizes  his  Hortensius.  How  far  professional 
jealousy  will  carry  a  man  is  well  shown  by  the  letters 
in  which  one  who  is  in  such  matters  usually  a  model  of 
good  taste,  and  is  inclined  to  say  the  best  he  can  for 
everybody  save  Domitian,  sees  fit  to  ridicule  his  rival's 
way  of  mourning  a  son's  death,  even  hints  that  he  may 
not  after  all  regard  the  occurrence  as  an  unmitigated 
misfortune. 2  We  are  not,  of  course,  allowed  to  forget 
that  our  letters  are  the  letters  of  a  senator  :  a  friend's 
advice  is  sought  upon  a  point  of  parliamentary  pro- 
cedure,^ and  amusing  descriptions  given  of  a  '  scene  in 
the  House  '  *  and  of  the  first  introduction  of  the  ballot  ^ 
— when  a  few  wits  could  not  resist  the  temptation  to 
cover  the  voting  papers  with  flippant,  even  improper, 
remarks.  Once  or  twice  Pliny  is  clearly  posing  as  one 
of  the  '  independents '  of  Domitian's  reign.  He 
reminds  Tacitus  of  some  '  brave  words  '  with  which  he 
claims  to  have  faced  the  anger  of  one  of  the  tyrant's 
most  formidable  spies,®  and  in  a  letter  on  visions  and 
dreams  writes  as  follows  : 

The  young  brother  of  one  of  my  freedmen  dreamed  he 
saw  some  one  sitting  on  the  bed  and  applying  a  razor  to  his 
head.  .  .  .  When  daylight  came,  his  head  was  found 
actually  shorn,  with  the  hair  lying  all  about.  The  occurrence 
was  soon  confimied  by  something  very  similar.  A  slave 
boy  was  sleeping  with  several  others  in  the  dormitory, 
when  two  white-shirted  beings  came  in  at  the  window, 
shaved  his  head,  and  retired  the  way  they  had  come. 
Day  found  him  likewise  shorn,   with  hair  lying  about. 

1  Ep.  2.  II  and  12  ;   3.  4  and  9  ;   5.  20  ;  9.  13. 

'  Ep.  4.  2  and  7  :  see  esp.  2  §  i  Regulus  filium  amisit,  hoc  imo 
malo  indignus — quod  nescio  an  malum  putet. 

»  Ep.  8.  14.  *  Ep.  6.  5.  6  Ep_  ^,  25. 

*  E.p.  7-  33- 


CORRESPONDENCE  245 

There  was  no  very  remarkable  sequel,  except  that  I  escaped 
impeachment — and  I  should  not  have  done  so,  had  Domitian 
lived  longer  :  an  information  against  me  was  found  among 
his  papers.  Men  who  are  being  prosecuted  let  their  hair 
grow  long,  and  one  might  conceive  that  the  clipping  of  my 
servants'  hair  came  as  a  sign  that  the  danger  threatening 
me  had  departed.^ 

Whether  Tacitus  thought  the  '  brave  words  '  worth 
mention  or  not  the  loss  of  the  appropriate  portion  of 
the  Histories  makes  it  impossible  for  us  to  know.  But 
Pliny's  interpretation  of  the  dream  is  certainly  very 
unconvincing.  Perhaps  familiarity  with  the  practical 
jokes  of  the  modern  boarding-school  or  university 
would  have  saved  him  from  so  much  as  mentioning  it. 
Anyhow,  the  progress  of  his  poUtical  career  under  the 
Terror  squares  but  ill  with  the  suggestion  that  his 
attitude  towards  it  differed  materially  from  that  of 
other  senators — and,  if  we  may  beheve  his  own  testi- 
mony, Tacitus. 

Some  scepticism  is  admissible,  too,  when  we  turn 
to  the  pieces  which  have  for  theme  Pliny  the  man  of 
letters.  Our  author  was  certainly  a  dehghtful  writer 
and  a  good  friend  to  Hterature,  but  he  was  also  an 
incorrigible  dilettante.  When  he  tells  us  that  he  has 
chosen  to  do  many  things  respectably  because  he  felt 
unable  to  do  any  one  conspicuously  well,^  he  is  a  good 
deal  nearer  to  truth  than  he  would  have  us  believe, 
perhaps  than  he  is  himself  aware.  The  following 
passage  is  too  significant  : 

I  was  never  averse  from  poetry  :  why,  at  fourteen  I 
wrote  a  Greek  tragedy.     What  was  it  like?    you  ask.     I 

>  Ep.  7.  27.  12  sqq. 

*  Ep.  9.  29.  1  ut  satius  est  unum  aliquid  insigniter  facere  quam 
plurima  mediocriter,  ita  plurima  mediocriter  si  non  possis  unum  aliquid 
insigniter.  Quod  intuens  ego  uariis  me  studiorum  generibus,  nulli  satis 
confistts,  experior. 


246   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

don't  know,  but  it  was  certainly  entitled  A  tragedy. 
Later  on,  returning  from  military  service,  I  was  wind- 
bound  at  Icaria,  and  wrote  some  elegiacs  on  the  island  and 
the  adjacent  waters.  I  've  tried  my  hand  at  epic  too — 
hendecasyllables  not  till  now.  The  history  of  their  com- 
position is  as  follows.  In  reading  Asinius  Gallus'  com- 
parison of  his  father  and  Cicero  I  came  across  a  love  poem 
of  the  latter's,  and  when  I  retired  to  take  my  siesta,  not 
finding  myself  sleepy,  I  got  musing  on  the  fact  that  the 
greatest  orators  had  affected  and  prided  themselves  upon 
that  sort  of  work.  I  gave  my  mind  to  the  matter,  and  in 
less  time  than  I  had  expected,  considering  how  long  it  was 
since  I  had  written  verse,  turned  out  the  following  lines, 
on  the  very  idea  that  had  set  me  writing.^ 

Cependant,  je  n'ai  point  etudie,  et  j'ai  fait  cela  tout 
du  premier  coup  !  And  M.  Jourdain's  prose  is  about 
as  distinguished  as  the  poetry  which  Pliny  appends. 
Nor  is  it  only  his  own  work  that  so  easily  contents  him. 
He  talks  quite  seriously  of  the  '  big  crop  of  poets  this 
year,' 2  and  is  convinced  that  if  '  readings'  come  thick 
and  fast  all  must  be  well  with  the  world  of  letters. 
Himself  a  warm  partisan  of  this  institution,  he  feels 
deeply  for  a  poet  whose  opening  words — 

Thou  bidd'st  me,  Priscus, 
were  interrupted  by  a  member  of  the  audience,  who 
happened  to  bear  the  name  of  Priscus  and  rudely 
protested,  '  No,  indeed,  I  don't  !  '  ^  He  speaks  with 
bitterness  of  the  people  who  come  late  and  leave  early, 
'  some  looking  ashamed  and  sheepish,  but  others 
behaving  with  bluff  nonchalance.'  *  The  cruel  fact  is 
that  no  ancient  writings  bring  out  the  weakness  of  the 

1  Ep.  7.  4.  2  sqq. :  cp.  4.  14.  2  (hendecasyllables),  5.  3.  i  {uersiculi). 
In  7.9.  II  he  gives  us  another  sample  of  his  ability  in  this  direction  : 
see  also  p.  99. 

*  Ep.  I.  13.  I  magnum  prouentiim  poetarum  annus  hie  attulit. 

»  Ep.  6.  15.  2  sqq.  The  words  ol  the  '  dialogue  '  are  :  '  Prisce, 
tubes.' — '  ego  uero  non  iubeo.' 

*  Ep.  I.  13.  2  alii  dissimulanter  etfttriim,  alii  simpliciter  et  libere. 


CORRESPONDENCE  247 

'  readings '  so  clearly  as  Pliny's.  Of  many  passages 
one  could  quote  in  illustration  the  most  instructive 
is  a  Vade-mecum  for  Recitation  Audiences,  nominally 
addressed  to  Restitutus  : 

Praise  the  reader,  be  he  better  than  you,  worse  than  you, 
equal  to  you.  For  if  he  that  is  your  superior  deserves  no 
praise,  neither  can  you ;  and  if  he  is  your  inferior  or  peer, 
it  must  help  your  reputation  that  one  whom  you  can  match 
or  excel  should  be  rated  high.^ 

That  he  himself  did  not  entirely  rely  on  this  means 
of  eliciting  criticism  appears  from  the  fact  that  several 
of  the  letters  serve  as  cover  for  some  composition  which 
he  is  sending  for  revision  to  the  addressee. ^  Of 
pecuUar  interest  to  students  of  hterary  history  are  four 
pieces  which  contain  accounts  of  the  works  and  manner 
of  Ufe  of  the  elder  Phny,  and  notices  on  the  deaths  of 
this  same  writer,  Martial  and  Silius.^  There  are  a  few 
rhetorical  themes,  a  plea  for  redundance  rather  than 
brevity  in  oratory  being  addressed  to  Tacitus,*  whilst 
elsewhere  ^  the  view  that  the  highest  eloquence  must 
sometimes  approximate  to  bombast  is  boldly  maintained. 
Phny's  taste  for  the  tranquil  beauties  of  inanimate 
nature  is  by  now  become  a  commonplace  of  literary 
history.  But  the  passages  generally  quoted  in  this 
connexion  are  not  all  of  the  same  class,  and  there  is  a 
good  deal  of  difference  between  letters  like  those  on 
Lake  Vadimo  and  the  spring  at  Como  ^ — mere  curiosities 
of  nature,  which  would  have  caught  the  attention  of 
such  men  as  Pliny's  uncle — and  those  which  describe 


1 


Ep.  6.  17.  4.     Bacon  translates  the  passage,  k  propos  of  the 
'  arts  of  ostentation,'  in  his  essay  on  Vam  Glory. 
-  So,  e.g.,  Epp.  I.  2  and  8. 
»  Ep.  3.  5  and  6.  16  ;   3.  7  (Silius)  ;   3.  21  (Martial). 

*  Ep.  I.  20.  •*  Ep-  9-  26. 

*  Ep.  8.  20,  4.  30. 


248    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

the  source  of  the  Clitumnus  and  the  coast  scenery  near 
Centunicellae.^  These  last  certainly  breathe  a  genuine 
love  of  nature,  such  as  we  are  too  prone  to  regard  as  of 
coniparatively  rnodern  growth.  In  other  respects,  too, 
this  correspondence  shows  how  easy  it  is  to  exaggerate 
the  difference  between  Rornan  life  and  thought  in  the 
first  century  and  those  of,  say,  the  English  in  the 
eighteenth  or  nineteenth.  Many  of  the  reflections 
with  which  these  letters  teem  resemble  closely  those  of 
Pope  and  his  contemporaries  in  their  correspondence, 
of  Addison  and  his  coadjutors  in  the  Spectator.-  The 
country  squire  who  resents  PUny's  attempt  to  talk 
down  to  his  supposed  level  and  diverts  the  conversation 
from  the  crops  and  the  weather  to  matters  Hterary,^  the 
old  lady  who  so  respects  the  susceptibilities  of  a  serious- 
minded  grandson  who  lives  with  her  that  when  about  to 
indulge  in  a  card  party  or  private  theatricals  she  is 
careful  to  give  him  the  timely  warning  that  enables  him 
to  beat  a  retreat  to  his  study  * — here  are  pictures, 
presented  in  consecutive  letters,  that  might  well  have 
been  drawn  by  Fielding  or  Thackeray. 

A  MS.  of  the  letters  which  was  discovered  at  Paris  in 
the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  is  now  lost, 
appended  as  a  tenth  book  seventy-two  oflicial  com- 
munications from  PUny  to  Trajan,  of  which  fifty-seven 
are  accompanied  by  the  emperor's  reply,  and  all  save 
the  first  fourteen  were  made  during  the  Bithynian 
governorship.  As  the  collection  breaks  off  suddenly 
it  is  possible  that  Pliny  was  not  the  editor  :  certainly 
it  presents  him  to  us  in  quite  another  Ught  than  that  in 
which  the  nine-books'  correspondence  was  intended  to 

1  Ep.  8.  8;    6.  31.  15  sqq. 

^  See  e.g.  Ep.  1.  9.  i  ;   3.  16.  i  ;   7.  20.  i  ;   8.  20.  i. 

»  Ep.  7.  25.  *  Ep.  7.  24.  5. 


CORRESPONDENCE  249 

set  him.  The  contrast  between  the  fussy  queries  of  the 
official  and  the  quiet,  dignified  responses  of  the  emperor 
is  almost  painful.  Once  ^  at  least  the  latter  is  stung 
into  something  like  a  protest  :  '  It  was  because  I  wished 
you  to  settle  Bithynia  on  your  own  lines  that  I  chose  a 
man  of  your  sound  judgment  and  experience  to  be  its 
governor.'  The  most  instructive  of  these  letters  are 
perhaps  those  which  reveal  the  deplorable  state  of  the 
self-governing  cities,  with  bankrupt  ambitions  that 
must  have  fine  squares  and  leave  open  beside  them 
'  what  is  called  a  river,  but  is  really  a  filthy  sewer,' 
and  begin  two  aqueducts  without  finishing  either. ^ 
The  most  famous  are  no  doubt  Pliny's  request  for 
advice  as  to  the  procedure  to  be  adopted  in  regard  to 
persons  accused  of  Christianity,  and  Trajan's  reply. 
The  former  ^  is  the  longest  in  the  book.  Phny  explains 
that  he  punishes  only  such  as  persist  in  declaring  them- 
selves Christians  :  '  I  felt  that  whatever  the  tenets  they 
professed,  such  contumacy  called  for  punishment,'  he 
says.  An  examination  of  two  female  slaves  who  had 
been  employed  at  Christian  gatherings  has  revealed 
nothing  worse  than  an  '  heretical  and  extravagant 
creed.'  As  the  disease  has  spread  widely,  men  and 
women  of  all  ages  and  classes  being  involved,  he  is 
incHned  to  allow  time  for  repentance.  Trajan's  reply 
is  brief  enough  to  be  reproduced  here  : 

You  have  taken  the  proper  course,  Pliny,  in  examining 
into  the  cases  of  persons  charged  before  you  with  being 
Christians.  It  is  impossible  to  lay  down  a  general  principle 
to  serve  as  an  invariable  rule.  There  is  no  need  to  search 
for  them,  but  if  they  are  accused  and  convicted,  they  must 
be  punished — save  that  any  one  who  says  he  is  not  a 

*  Ep.  117  sed  ego  ideo  tuam  prudentiam  elegi  ut  formandis  istitis 
provinciae  moribus  ipse  moderaris,  etc. 

»  Epp.  98  and  37.  *  ^P-  9^- 


250   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Christian  and  proves  it  by  his  acts,  by  praying  to  our  gods, 
shall,  no  matter  how  doubtful  his  past,  be  pardoned  on  the 
strength  of  his  recantation.  Anonymous  informations  must 
not  be  accepted  in  any  kind  of  charge  :  such  a  course  sets 
a  dangerous  precedent  and  runs  counter  to  the  spirit  of  our 
age.i 

Both  letters  were  known  to  TertulUan.^  who  bitterly 
attacks  their  spirit.  The  nine-book  collection  inspired 
those  of  Symmachus  and  Sidonius  in  the  fifth  century, 
but  whereas  with  the  fornier  its  influence  is  confined  to 
the  general  conception,^  the  Bishop  of  Clermont  avows 
himself  at  the  outset  *  its  admirer  and  makes  frequent 
allusions  to  its  contents.  In  the  Middle  Ages  Phny's 
correspondence  shared  the  fate  of  Cicero's  in  being 
ousted  by  that  of  Seneca  and  the  Fathers.  Einhart 
takes  from  it  one  of  the  two  classical  quotations  which 
he  allows  himself  in  his  own  letters,^  and  some  good 
MSS.  belong  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  but  John 
of  Salisbury  and  even  Petrarch  betray  no  knowledge 
of  it  whilst  Walter  Map's  reference  to  Calpurnia  is  a 
second-hand  one,  with  Sidonius  for  middle-man. 
Petrarch's  admirer  Coluccio  Salutati  possessed  a  copy, 
but  the  first  Renaissance  imitator  seenis  to  have  been 
Politian.  Erasmus  often  illustrates  from  PHny  his  rules 
for  letter-writing,  and  Ascham  styles  him  '  the  purest 
writer  of  all  his  age,'  making  some  use  of  the  letter  On 
Holiday  Reading.^  Montaigne  draws  from  him  two 
of  the  trois  bonnes  femmes  to  whom  he  devotes  a 
chapter  of  the  Essais.'^     Pasquier,  whose  collection  of 

»  Ep.  97.  *  Apol.  2. 

'  The  concentration  in  a  tenth  book  of  all  correspondence  with 
emperors  is  obviously  modelled  on  Pliny's  book  of  Trajan  letters. 

■*  Ep.  I.  I.  I.  C.  Plinii  disciplinam  maturitatemque  uesiigiis 
praestimphiosis  insecuturiis. 

'  Manitius,  Gesch.  der  lat.  Lit.  des  Mittelalters,  p.  644. 

•  Ep.  7.  9.  '  Essais  2.  35. 


CORRESPONDENCE  251 

letters  is  the  first  of  the  kind  written  in  French,  is  one 
of  Pliny's  heirs,  though  it  was  witli  Voiture  that 
Perrault's  famous  Parallelc  matched  the  Roman.  In 
England  Pope's  letters  clearly  follow  Plinian  tradition ; 
his  friend  the  Earl  of  Orrery  translates  the  whole 
correspondence.  Melmoth's  version  of  1746  was 
reckoned  by  Warton  superior  to  its  original.  Some 
hundred  years  later  Sainte-Beuve  in  the  Causeries  du 
Lundi  shows  himself  an  appreciative  reader  of  an 
author  of  whom  he  is  reminded  by  Cowper's  letters,  by 
a  description  from  the  pen  of  Henri  Quatre,  by  Favre's 
house  on  Lake  Geneva— and  by  a  phrase  of  Flaubert's 
Salammht. 


CHAPTER  XI 
GRAMMAR.  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC 

THE  universities  of  Alexandria  and  Pergamum 
gave  the  name  of  grammar  {grmnmatice)  to 
the  Hterary  and  hnguistic  studies  with  which 
the  names  of  Aristophanes,  Zenodotus  and  Aristarchus 
are  especially  connected  :  it  was  a  contemporary  of  the 
latter's.  Crates  of  Mallus,  who  brought  them  into 
fashion  at  Rome.^  Of  the  work  of  Aelius  Stilo,  the 
first  Roman  who  really  deserves  the  title  of  grammaticus, 
and  his  famous  pupil  Varro,  enough  is  known  to  prove 
that  they  occupied  themselves  with  investigation  into 
the  history  of  their  language,  comment  upon  its  oldest 
documents  (which,  in  the  case  of  Varro  at  any  rate, 
extended  into  the  region  of  antiquities),  preparation  of 
reliable  texts,  literary  criticism  and  research,  in  short, 
philology  in  the  widest  sense. 

The  first  writer  of  this  kind  belonging  to  our  period 
is  Fenestella,  who  died,  according  to  the  elder  PHny,^ 
towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Tiberius.  His  frag- 
ments ^  show  that  he  had  a  strong  bent  in  the  direction 
of  antiquities.  Seneca  indeed  definitely  impHes  that 
the  proper  title  to  apply  to  a  man  with  his  interests  was 
that  of  philologus  rather  than  grammaticus}  Suetonius 
who  quotes  him  once  ^  does  not  include  him  in  his  list 

^  Suet.  De  Gramm.  2.  *  Nat.  Hist.  33.  146. 

*  Peter,  H-ist.  Rom.  Fragm.  p.  272.  *  Ep.  108.  31. 

*  Suet.  Vita  Terentii  (p.  292  Roth). 

252 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC     253 

of  grammatici,  and  Jerome  describes  him  as  a  historian 
and  poet.i  Nonius  quotes  from  a  work  of  his  entitled 
Annates,^  but  it  does  not  follow  that  all  the  fragments 
we  possess  come  from  this.  Anyhow,  we  find  in  the 
i  midst  of  the  notices  on  matters  connected  with  public 
^  and  private  life  with  which  they  abound  a  certain 
:  3  number  that  bear  upon  literary  history,^  a  combination 
;i  that  reminds  us  of  Disraeli's  Curiosities  of  Literature. 
t  Asconius  and  Pliny  the  elder  quote  Fenestella,  the 
;  I  latter  pretty  frequently,  and  the  Greek  Plutarch  appeals 
i    twdce  to  his  testimony.* 

J  Quintus  Remmius  Palaemon  ^  was  born  in  slavery, 
1  but  learned  much  in  the  course  of  his  attendance  upon 
(  his  master's  schoolboy  son,  and  on  gaining  his  freedom 
set  up  as  a  teacher.  He  had  a  great  vogue  under 
Tiberius  and  Claudius,  in  spite  of  a  personality  that 
suggests  the  charlatan  :  against  the  boastful  arrogance 
that  led  him  to  maintain  that  the  Palaemon  who  is 
umpire  in  one  of  Virgil's  singing  contests  foreshadowed 
himself,  the  future  arbiter  of  poesy,  and  call  Varro  a 
pig,  must  be  set  the  fact  that  Persius  and  Quintilian 
were  among  the  products  of  his  school.®  His  text- 
book, which  Juvenal's  blue-stocking  loves  to  consult,' 
is  now  lost,  but  it  is  probable  that  Quintilian's  observa- 
tions upon  grammar,^  in  the  course  of  which  he  intro- 

^  Ad  anil.  Ahv.  2035.  "  So,  e.g.,  s.v.  reticulum. 

3  Suet.  I.e.  (Terence  cannot  have  come  to  Rome  as  a  prisoner  of 
war),  Gell  15.  28.  4  (Cicero's  age  at  the  time  when  he  dehvered  the 
pro  Roscio) . 

*  Asconius  thrice  (see  Clark's  edition,  p.  5)  ;  Phn.  Nat.  Hist. 
e.g.  8.  19,  9.  65,  and  the  indices  to  six  books  ;   Phit.  Crass.  5,  Still.  28. 

^  Suet.  De  Gramm.  23,  whence,  in  the  main,  comes  the  account  on 
the  text. 

«  We  learn  this  from  the  Persius  biography,  and  the  schoha  on 
Juv.  6.  452  respectively. 

'  Juv.  I.e. 

«  lyist.  Or.  I.  4-8.     The  name  of  Palaemon  occurs  in  c.  5  §  60. 


254    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

duces  the  name  of  his  old  master  as  an  example  of  the 
rule  that  Greek  -wv  becomes  Latin  -o,  were  influenced 
by  it. 

About  the  beginning  of  Nero's  reign/  Quintus 
Asconius  Pedianus,  a  native  of  Padua,  dedicated  to  his 
sons  a  commentary  on  Cicero's  speech,  a  portion  of 
which  was  discovered  by  Poggio  at  St.  Gall,  in  a.d.  1416. 
Points  of  language  are  almost  entirely  ignored  in  it, 
and  Suetonius  does  not  reckon  the  author  among  his 
grammatici.  QuintiUan,  however,  quotes  him  as  his 
authority  for  certain  peculiarities  of  spelHng  which  he 
attributes  to  his  countryman  Livy,^  and  we  know  that 
he  wrote  a  book  entitled  An  Answer  to  the  Detractors 
of  Virgil,  in  which  he  made  the  famous  remark  as  to 
its  being  easier  to  rob  Hercules  of  his  club  than  Homer 
of  a  verse.3  The  Latin  of  the  commentary  is  simple 
and  clear,  an  excellent  model  for  dissertations  that  have 
to  be  composed  in  the  same  language.  Quintihan  and 
Gellius  refer  to  it,  and  Silius  pays  the  author  the  com- 
phment  of  introducing  an  ancestor  of  his  among  the 
figures  of  the  Punic  a. ^ 

The  elder  Pliny's  On  Doubtful  Points  of  Language,^ 
written  towards  the  end  of  Nero's  reign,  was,  if  we  may 
judge  from  the  fragments  preserved  to  us  by  Charisius, 
a  severely  technical  production.  But  the  work  of 
Marcus  Valerius  Probus  of  Berytus  ^  seems  to  have 
breathed  a  spirit  not  unUke  that  of  Varro  himself. 

»  ]exom&,Adann.Ahr.  2092.  The  extant  work  falls  between  A.D.54 
and  A.D.  57,  Claudius  being  dead  and  a  Caecina  whose  death  occurred 
before  October  57  still  alive  :  see  p.  27  Clark. 

*  Inst.  Or.  1.  7.  24. 

»  Donatus,  Vita  Fe;'gi7«  (printed  in  e.g.  Reifferscheid's  Swe^owms). 

*  Quint.  5.  10.  9,  Cell.  15.  28.  4,  Sil.  12.  212  sqq. 

'  Plin.  Ep.  3.  5.  5  '  dubii  sermonis  octo  (libri)  ' :  scripsit  sub  Nerone 
nouissimis  annis. 

«  Suet.  De  Granim.  24,  whence  comes  the  account  in  the  text. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC     255 

Weary  of  vain  attempts  to  secure  an  appointment  as 
centurion,  he  turned  to  literature  and  began  to  study 
the  early  Roman  literature  which,  long  since  neglected 
at  Rome,  was  still  read  in  Syria.  Presently  he  began 
to  collect  copies  and  compare  readings,  to  constitute 
texts  and  annotate  them,  making  use  of  critical  marks 
such  as  the  Alexandrians  had  been  accustomed  to 
employ, 1  and  finally  producing  editions  of  Lucretius, 
Virgil,  Horace,  and  Persius.^  He  gave  instruction  too, 
though  not  in  any  formal  way,  preferring  to  gather  a 
few  choice  spirits  around  him  and  then,  in  the  course 
of  ordinary  conversation,  let  fall  some  critical  remarks. 
He  left  behind  him  a  considerable  body  of  materials,  but 
had  actually  published  little.  From  his  Persius  edition 
comes  a  Hfe  of  the  poet  which  our  MSS.  preserve  : 
a  little  treatise  on  abbreviations  bearing  his  name  is 
still  extant,  and  is  generally  accepted  as  an  extract  from 
one  of  his  works. ^  He  seems  to  have  flourished  under 
Nero  and  the  Flavian  emperors.  Suetonius'  Hst  makes 
him  follow  Palaemon,  Martial  uses  his  name  to  denote 
'  the  critic  par  excellence,'  ^  and  GelHus  has  some  inter- 
esting specimens  of  his  table-talk,  gathered  from  the 
lips  of  men  who  had  heard  it.^ 

We  might  pass  now  to  the  study  which  regularly 
succeeded  grammar  in  the  Roman  education,  but  for 
two  books  which,  though  mainly  concerned  with 
rhetoric  and  oratory,  nevertheless  contain  much 
critical  matter.     Lucius  Annaeus  Seneca  was  born  in 

1  Cp.  the  Fragm.  Parts,  in  Granim.  Lat.  7,  p.  534. 

*  For  the  three  first  see  the  Paris  fragment,  for  the  fourth  the 
Persius  biography.  Traces  of  his  work  on  Virgil  are  found  in  Gell. 
13.  21.  4  and  Servius. 

*  Gramm.  Lat.  4,  p.  271. 

*  3.  2.  12  illo  vindice,  nee  Probum  tinieto.  Book  Two  is  generally 
assigned  to  a.d.  87-88. 

»  I.  15.  18,6.  7.  3.  etc. 


256   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

an  equestrian  family  at  Corduba  about  55  b.c.^  Exactly 
when  he  came  to  Rome,  where  he  obviously  lived  for  a 
considerable  time,  is  uncertain,  but  it  was  presumably 
after  the  civil  wars,  during  which,  he  informs  us,  he 
remained  at  Corduba. ^  By  his  wife  Helvia  he  had 
three  sons,  of  whom  the  eldest,  adopted  by  his  father's 
friend  the  rhetorician  Galho  and  known  thenceforward 
by  his  adopted  father's  name,  was  the  governor  of 
Achaea  before  whom  St.  Paul  was  arraigned,  the 
second  was  the  philosopher  Seneca,  and  the  third, 
Mela,  was  Lucan's  father.^  There  is  something  of  old 
Cato  about  this  Spanish  Roman,  who  is  the  impartial 
enemy  of  both  philosophy  *  and  rakishness,^  despises 
the  contemporary  Greek,  ^  and  will  have  no  higher 
education  for  women.'  He  survived  Tiberius,^  but 
was  evidently  not  alive  when  Seneca  was  banished  in 
A.D.  41. 

Of  Seneca's  historical  work  mention  has  been  made 
already  on  p.  151 ;  my  introductory  chapter  owes  much 
to  the  book  which  we  have  here  to  consider.  It  is 
dedicated,  as  so  many  Roman  books  are,  to  the  author's 
sons,  and  is  the  product  of  his  old  age  :    some  of  the 

^  For  the  few  sentences  left  of  the  biography  by  his  son  see  p.  151*. 
Mart.  I.  61.  7  attests  his  birthplace,  Tac.  Ann.  14.  53  the  status  of  the 
family,  and  he  himself  implies  that  he  was  old  enough  in  43  B.C. 
to  have  appreciated  Cicero's  skill  in  declamation  :  Contr.  i.  pr.  11 
bellorum  ch (ilium  furor  intra  coloniani  meam  me  continuit ;  alioqui 
in  illo  atrio  in  quo  duos  grandes  praetextatos  ait  secum  declamasse 
(a  refei-ence  to  an  event  of  the  year  43)  potui  adesse. 

*  Contr.  I.e. 

'  Cp.  Tac.  Ann.  16.  17,  Sen.  Helu.  2.  4. 

*  Sen.  Ep.  108.  22. 
^  Contr.  I  pr.  8  sqq. 

^  Witness  his  frequent  ridicule  of  the  Greek  declaimers  (e.g.  i  6. 
12). 

'  Sen.  Helu.  17.  ^  utinam  quidem  .  .  .  pater  meus  minus  maiorum 
consuetudini  deditus  voluisset  te  praeceptis  sapientiae  erudiri  potius 
qiiam  imhui. 

*  The  language  of  Suas.  3.  7  proves  that  Tiberius  is  dead. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC     257 

contents  cannot  have  seen  the  light  before  the  death  of 
Tiberius.  The  title,  Oratorum  et  Rhetorum  Sententiae, 
Diuisiones,  Color es  may  be  translated  '  choice  sayings, 
distributions  of  heads,  and  palliatives  from  the  works 
of  orators  and  rhetoricians.'  Ten  books  are  concerned 
with  controuersiae  (declamations  on  legal  subjects), 
one  with  suasoriae  (declamations  of  a  deliberative 
character)  :  each  contains  from  six  to  nine  themes. 
Of  the  controuersiae  books  we  have  only  five  in  fairly 
complete  condition  with  their  prefaces  (devoted  to  an 
account  of  one  or  more  of  the  chief  declaimers)  and 
their  declamations  (excerpted  and  discussed  under 
the  three  heads  indicated  in  the  title  of  the  work). 
The  other  five  books  are  represented  only  by  two 
complete  prefaces  and  an  abridgment  of  the  declama- 
tions in  which  the  treatment  of  the  themes  is  most 
mercilessly  pruned  down. 

A  work  which  aims  at  being  more  than  a  mere  text- 
book and  yet  consists  mainly  of  fragments  from  the 
compositions  of  others  than  the  author  is,  as  will  be 
guessed  from  what  has  been  said  on  p.  175,  somewhat 
of  a  rarity  in  ancient  hterature  of  a  good  period.  There 
is,  however,  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  extracts  are 
genuine  quotations.  Seneca  lays  claim  to  a  good 
memory,!  j^nd  no  doubt  had  good  notes.  His  hterary 
contribution  consists  in  the  prefaces  and  the  frequent 
insets  of  his  own  with  which  he  varies  the  monotony  of 
the  extracts.  Of  the  hght  Seneca  throws  upon  the 
personahty  of  the  leading  declaimers  and  the  contempt 
that  some  of  them  felt  for  the  declamation  I  have 
already  spoken.  Perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  the 
prefaces  is  the  first  of  all,  with  its  attempts  to  explain 
the  decHne  of  oratory  as  the  outcome  of  the  general 

1  Contr.  I.  pr.  2. 
R 


258   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

decay  in  the  moral  fibre  of  the  nation.     But  all  the 

Senecan  matter  abounds  with  interesting  fragments 

of    hterary    criticism    and    delightful    anecdotes.     A 

typical  passage  is  one  in  which  Seneca  mentions  how 

the  grammarians  fell  foul  of  a  poet  who  wrote,  in  a 

description  of  soldiers  taking  their  rest  on  the  day 

before  the  battle,    . 

stretched  at  their  ease 
'  This  day,  at  least,'  they  say,  '  is  all  mine  own,' 

when  the  rules  required  him  to  say,  '  all  our  own,'  ^ 
maintains  that  the  expression  is  perfectly  correct,  and 
protests  against  such  cavilling  being  exercised  on 
works  of  genius.^  As  specimens  of  the  anecdotes  the 
following  pair  may  serve  : 

It  was  not  that  Ovid  did  not  know  the  faults  he  com- 
mitted as  a  poet :  he  admired  them,  as  we  can  see  from  the 
fact  that,  when  his  friends  asked  him  to  cancel  three  lines 
of  his,  he  replied  that  there  were  just  three  that  he  could  not 
have  them  interfering  with.  It  seemed  a  reasonable 
proposal,  and  so  they  withdrew  and  wrote  down  the  verses 
they  wanted  cancelled,  whilst  he  put  those  down  he  wished 
to  keep.     And  behold,  the  lists  proved  to  be  identical.^ 

At  the  celebration  of  his  games,  Caesar,  having  made 
Laberius  appear  in  a  mime,  there  and  then  restored  him  his 
nobility,  and  invited  him  to  take  his  place  in  the  seats 
reserved  for  his  order.  But  the  other  members  of  it  pro- 
ceeded to  sit  close  together  so  as  to  leave  no  room  for  him. 
Caesar  had  just  added  a  number  of  members  to  the  senate 
.  .  .  and  Cicero  making  the  two  incidents  an  opportunity 
for  a  jest  sent  his  page  to  Laberius  to  say,  '  If  I  were  not  so 
cramped  for  room  I  would  have  given  you  a  place  at  my  side.' 
But  Cicero  himself  was  in  bad  odour  as  one  that  had 
toadied  to  Caesar  and  Pompey,  without  being  really  a 

^  Suas.  2.  12,  stratique  per  hcrbam  \ '  hie  mens  est '  dixere  '  dies  !  ' 
*  Suas.  I.e.  13,  grammaUcorum  calumnia  ab  omnibus  magnis  ingeniis 
summouenda. 
^  Contf.  2.  2.  12. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM.  AND  RHETORIC     259 

friend  to  either,  and  so  Laberius  retaliated  with  the  com- 
ment, '  You,  who  hke  to  have  two  chairs  to  sit  upon  at 
once !  '  1 

The  best  MSS.  of  the  work  belong  to  the  tenth 
century.  The  fame  of  the  philosopher  Seneca  seems 
gradually  to  have  extinguished  the  memory  of  his 
father  ;  Gerald  of  Cambray,  Roger  Bacon,  and  Petrarch 
evidently  regard  the  De  Causis  (their  usual  title  for 
our  book)  as  the  work  of  the  son.^  Some  of  its  themes 
inspired  tales  that  were  included  in  the  Gesta  Roma- 
norum.^  Montaigne  and  Jonson  knew  it ;  the  theme, 
and  some  expressions,  in  Massinger's  Bondman  suggest 
the  influence  of  a  declamation  from  Book  Seven  ;  and 
Corneille's  famous  qu'il  mourut  is  surely  an  echo  of  the 
*  Do  you  ask  me  what  he  was  to  do  ?  Why,  die  !  ' 
with  wliich  the  prosecutor  answers  those  who  rnake 
excuses  for  a  man  who  has,  at  the  bidding  of  a  tyrant, 
assaulted  his  own  father.^ 

The  other  critical  treatise  to  which  I  referred  above 
is  the  Dialogue  on  Orators  which  Enoch  of  Ascoli  dis- 
covered, under  circumstances  already  detailed,^  along 
with  the  Agricola  and  Germania.  It  seems  on  the 
whole  probable  that  all  three  works  were  by  the  same 
author.  Later  MSS.  definitely  assign  the  Dialogus  to 
Tacitus  :  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  Enoch's  did. 
Panormita,  mentioning  the  three  works  in  1426,  speaks 
definitely  of  '  Tacitus'  Germania '  and  '  the  same 
writer's  Agricola,'  but  in  regard  to  the  Dialogus,  says 
simply  that  he  conjectures  it  to  come  from  Tacitus. 
And  Panormita's  knowledge  of  these  works  is  almost 
certainly  derived  from  the  statements  of  the  monk  of 

^  Contr.  7.  3.  9.  The  phrase  duabiis  sellis  sedere  was  evidently  an 
equivalent  for  the  '  sit  on  the  fence  '  of  modern  days. 

*  See  e.g.  Gerald  of  Cambray,  Ep.  31. 

*  See  p.  7.  *  Contr.  9.  4.  16.  *  See  p.  192. 


26o    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Hersfeld,  who  in  his  turn  can  hardly  have  had  any 
other  MS.  in  mind  than  that  which  Enoch  afterwards 
discovered.  On  the  other  hand,  Decembrio,  heading 
a  list  of  some  newly  discovered  books  which  he  has 
actually  seen  at  Rome  in  1455  (the  year  Enoch 
brought  his  MS.  thither)  with  our  three,  definitely 
ascribes  all  ahke  to  Tacitus. 

The  Dialogus  presents  us  with  other  problems  besides 
that  of  its  authorship.  If  Tacitus  wrote  it,  then  (in 
view  of  what  is  stated  on  p.  164)  he  must  have 
written  it  after  the  Agricola.  But  in  that  work  the 
main  characteristics  of  the  style  which  distinguishes 
the  Annals  and  Histories  from  other  Silver  works  are 
already  clearly  apparent.  How  is  it  then  that  he  is 
so  Ciceronian  in  the  dialogue  ?  We  know  that  the 
rhetorical  schools  made  a  great  point  of  imitation,  we 
have  seen  that  with  the  epic  writers  the  cult  of  Virgil 
is  little  more  than  a  confession  that  his  Aeneid  is  being 
taken  as  a  model  :  is  it  surprising  that  in  this  De 
Oratore  of  the  Silver  age  the  author  should  have  set 
himself  to  reproduce  the  style  of  the  most  famous  ex- 
ponent of  this  particular  genus  of  Roman  literature  ? 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  even  in  points  of  vocabulary  and 
phraseology,  some  fairly  striking  resemblances  between 
the  language  of  the  historian  and  that  of  the  author  of 
the  Dialogus  have  been  observed,  and  the  personalities 
of  the  two  writers,  nowhere  strongly  contrasted,  are 
in  one  or  two  points,  such  as  their  attitude  towards 
the  constitution  and  the  moral  condition  of  Rome,  in 
striking  agreement.  The  thorniest  question  of  all,  that 
as  to  the  dramatic  date,  it  is  impossible  to  handle 
adequately  in  the  space  at  my  disposal  here,  and  I 
must  content  myself  with  stating  my  conviction  that 
as  one  of  the  two  characters  who  mention  the  fact  that 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC    261 

one  hundred  and  twenty  years  have  elapsed  since  the 
death  of  Cicero  in  43  takes  the  trouble  to  enumerate 
the  items  on  which  the  calculation  is  based — assigning, 
for  instance,  '  twice  fourteen  '  years  to  Claudius  and 
Nero,  by  which  of  course  is  meant  '  fourteen  apiece  '  ^ — 
we  cannot  possibly,  in  order  to  get  over  some  minor 
difficulties,  explain  away  that  total  as  a  mere  round 
number,  but  must  definitely  regard  the  conversation 
as  assumed  for  a.d.  jy/yS.  Of  a  third  difficulty, 
occasioned  by  the  loss  of  part  of  our  text,  it  will  be 
better  to  speak  a  little  later. 

The  argument  is  as  follows.  The  rhetoricians  Aper 
and  Secundus  call  upon  Curiatius  Maternus,  and  the 
former,  reproaching  his  host  for  having  abandoned 
the  bar  in  order  to  devote  himself  to  play-writing, 
indulges  in  a  panegyric  of  oratory  and  a  depreciation  of 
poetry.  Maternus  defends  his  choice,^  and  Vipstanus 
Messalla  coming  in  and  joining  in  the  conversation  ' 
soon  reveals  himself  as  an  opponent  of  the  '  new 
rhetoric'  Aper  *  maintains  that  there  is  no  essential 
difference  between  the  orators  of  their  day  and  those 
of  Cicero's  :  what  difference  there  is  represents  simply 
the  sound  taste  of  modern  audiences  for  point  and 
elegance.  Messalla  ^  begins  to  attack  the  moderns, 
but  being  reminded  ^  that  he  has  promised  to  say 
something  as  to  the  causes  of  the  decline  which  he 
assumes  proceeds  to  throw  the  blame  on  the  indifference 

*  §  17  statue  sex  (MSS.  nouem  which  cannot  be  right)  etqiiinquaginta 
atmos  quibus  mox  Augustus  rem  publicum  rexit  :  adice  Tiberii  tres 
et  uiginti,  et  prope  quadriennium  Gai,  ac  bis  quaternos  denos  Claudn 
ac  Neronis  annos,  atque  ilium  Galbae  et  Othonis  et  Vitellii  longum  et 
unum  annum,  ac  sextam  iam  felicis  huius  principatus  stationem  qua 
Vespasianus  rem  publicam  fouet :  centum  et  uiginti  anni  ab  interitu 
Ciceronis  in  hunc  diem  colliguntur.  I  take  statio  here  in  the  sense 
'  stage,'  almost  '  period,'  principatus  as  a  genitive  of  definition. 

^  §§  II  ^qq-  '  §  M-  *  §  16  sqq.         *  §  25.  •  §  27- 


262   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

of  parents  to  the  moral  character  of  their  children, 
the  narrowness  of  the  school  curriculum,  and  the 
unpractical  nature  of  the  declamation.  At  this  point  ^ 
we  get  an  unintelhgible  sentence  which  is  evident^ 
the  outcome  of  the  telescoping  of  two  intelHgible 
sentences  into  each  other,  and  some  MSS.  state  that 
'  six  pages  ' — of  their  archetype,  presumably — '  have 
been  lost '  :  anyhow,  the  rest  of  Messalla's  speech  has 
gone.  The  distribution  of  the  next  six  sections  is  not 
certain.  The  last  of  them  is  spoken  by  Maternus,^  as 
the  section  which  immediately  follows  it,  describing 
the  breaking-up  of  the  party,  begins  with  the  words, 
'  Here  Maternus  concluded.'  And,  if  our  MSS.  may 
be  relied  on,  all  six  must  be  his  :  there  is  no  indication 
of  a  change  of  speaker.  But  there  can  hardly  be  any 
doubt  that  before  Maternus  spoke,  Secundus  (whose 
participation  in  the  dialogue  Maternus  himself  had 
promised)  ^  must  have  offered  some  remarks.  It  is 
possible,  of  course,  that  the  whole  of  these  has  vanished 
in  the  '  six-page  '  lacuna.  A  careful  examination  of  the 
six  sections  will,  however,  incline  the  reader  to  reject 
this  hypothesis.  For  although  these  are  all  concerned 
with  the  topic  '  republican  constitution  favourable  to 
the  growth  of  eloquence,'  the  standpoint  with  which 
they  begin  is  not  the  one  with  which  they  end.  There, 
the  view  that  eloquence  thrives  best  under  conditions 
that  may  be  in  themselves  undesirable  is  mentioned 
only  to  be  dropped  as  irrelevant ;  here,  it  is  emphasized 
in  tones  that  remind  us  of  the  long  feud  between 
rhetoric  and  philosophy.  The  two  attitudes  are 
exactly  those  which  we  should  expect  Secundus  and 

^  At  the  end  of  §  35  (cum  ad  ueros  iudices  ucntum  rem  cogitaret 
nihil  humile  uel  abiectum  eloqui  poterat). 

>  §  41.  "  §  16. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC    263 

Matemus  respectively  to  adopt.  It  can  hardly  be 
through  mere  coincidence  that  we  get,  just  at  the  point 
of  cleavage,^  a  sentence  which,  in  its  present  form, 
seems  to  me,  on  purely  linguistic  grounds,  to  begin 
with  peculiar  abruptness  :  those  who  assume  here  yet 
another  lacuna,  in  which  the  end  of  Secundus'  speech 
and  the  beginning  of  that  of  Matemus  have  fallen  out, 
are  probably  right. 

The  dramatic  quaHties  of  our  work  are  considerable. 
The  character  of  Secundus  is  a  little  colourless,  but  then 
we  have  lost  his  speech,  and  we  know  from  Quintilian 
that  lack  of  combativeness  was  a  weakness  of  his.^  The 
other  persons  are  flesh  and  blood  creations,  comparing 
in  this  respect  quite  favourably  with  those  of  most 
Ciceronian  dialogues :  Matemus,  the  votary  of 
literature,  delighted  at  having  shaken  himself  free  of 
the  necessity  '  every  day  to  do  something  or  other  that 
goes  against  the  grain  ; '  ^  Aper,  the  brilHant,  shallow, 
utiUtarian,  sure  that  there  cannot  be  much  wrong  with 
a  pursuit  out  of  which  he  can  make  money  ;  Messalla, 
the  man  of  insight,  whose  power  to  put  his  finger  on 
the  weak  points  in  the  armour  of  eloquence,  is  stig- 
matized by  superficial  observers  as  pessimism. 

The  educational  standpoint,  too,  is  most  interesting. 
With  the  old  days,  when  children  were  entrusted  to  the 
care  of  some  woman  relative  of  approved  character, 
who  kept  an  eye  even  upon  their  hours  of  relaxation 
and  so  trained  them  that  they  had  no  insuperable 
difficulties  to  meet  when  they  came  later  on  to  speciahze 
as  soldiers,  lawyers,  and  orators,*  Messalla  contrasts 
very  unfavourably  the  present   system  which  leaves 

1  §  40.  '  See  p.  131. 

'  §  i-^  necessitate  cotidie  aliquid  contra  animiini  Jaoicndi. 

*  §  28. 


264    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

them  to  a  Greek  slave-girl  and  one  or  two  of  the  least 
capable  men-slaves,  whose  ignorance  and  tittle-tattle 
soon  demoralize  them.  To\vn  boys  think  of  nothing 
but  the  theatre,  the  gladiators,  and  the  races,  and  their 
teachers  discuss  these  matters  with  them  more  readily 
than  anything  else.  It  isn't  the  moral  tone  of  a  school 
and  the  evidence  of  ability  to  teach  that  get  a  man  a 
connexion  :  what  is  necessary  is  to  be  able  to  '  play  the 
toady  in  a  drawing-room  and  to  cast  the  various  baits 
of  flattery.'  ^  A  protest  against  the  narrow  view  of 
education  which  is  often  nowadays  disguised  by  the 
use  of  that  sounding  word  vocational  is  worth  quoting  : 

There  are  many  subjects  the  mere  knowledge  whereof  is 
a  help  to  us  even  when  we  are  not  actually  engaged  upon 
them,  making  itself  apparent  in  the  least  likely  places.  .  .  . 
So  completely  is  this  forgotten  by  the  '  eloquents '  of 
to-day  that  one  can  detect  in  their  speeches  the  uncouth, 
unseemly  inaccuracies  of  colloquial  speech,  that  they  know 
nothing  of  statute  law  or  parliamentary  proceedings, 
openly  scoff  at  civil  law,  are  downright  afraid  of  philosophy 
and  the  teaching  of  the  sages,  drive  eloquence  from  her 
kingdom  and  debase  her  into  a  matter  of  a  few  common- 
places and  some  beggarly  conceits.  And  so  she  that  was 
once  the  queen  of  sciences,  filling  our  minds  with  the  fair 
company  of  these  her  ladies,  has  now  been  cut  down  and 
trimmed  about,  has  lost  her  pomp  and  state — I  might 
almost  say  her  gentility — and  is  studied  as  the  basest  of 
the  mechanic  arts  is  studied. ^ 

There  are  no  ancient  references  to  the  Dialogus,  and 
the  moderns  but  rarely  mention  it.  Elyot,  Montaigne, 
and  Boileau  know  it,  Dryden  speaks  of  it  as  the  work  of 
Quintilian  (a  theory  with  which  Wotton  shows  himself 

^  §  29  colligunt   discipulos   non  seueritate  disciplinae  nee  ingenii 
experimento,  sed  ambitione  saltitationum  et  illecebris  adulationis. 
'  §32. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC   265 

acquainted  in  Ancient  and  Modern  Learning),  William 
Pitt's  impromptu  version  of  one  of  its  sentences  ^ — '  It 
is  with  eloquence  as  with  flame  :  it  requires  fuel  to 
feed  it,  motion  to  excite  it,  and  it  brightens  as  it  burns  ' 
— is  deservedly  famous. 

I  pass  to  professed  writers  upon  rhetoric.  The 
abridged  version  by  Publius  Rutilius  Lupus  of  a 
treatise  on  oratorical  figures  composed  by  the  younger 
Cicero's  rhetorical  teacher  Gorgias  may  belong  to  our 
period,  though  it  is  not  certain  that  it  was  not  pubhshed 
under  Augustus.  Only  the  part  dealing  with  the 
figures  of  speech  has  reached  us,  and  it  is  of  Httle 
interest. 2  QuintiHan,  however,  several  times  cites  the 
book,3  and  impHes  that  it  was  respected  by  a  writer 
upon  rhetoric  whose  views  he  often  quotes,  the  Cornelius 
Celsus  whose  nearer  acquaintance  we  shall  make  in  the 
next  chapter.*  His  treatise  has  not  reached  us,  but  a 
schoUast's  note  upon  a  passage  of  Juvenal,^ in  which  that 
poet  describes  lady  lawyers  as  '  quite  capable  of  giving 
Celsus  a  lecture  on  the  art  of  composing  Exordia  and 
commonplaces,'  mentions  that  it  ran  to  seven  books. 
QuintiHan  also  occasionally  quotes  the  elder  PHny  as  an 
authority  on  his  subject,^  referring,  no  doubt,  to  the 
Studiosus  {'  The  Rhetorical  Student '),  in  which  he 
mapped  out  an  ideal  course  for  the  aspirant  to  oratorical 


^  §  36  magna  eloquentia  sicut  flamnia  materia  alitur  el  moiibus 
excitatur  et  urendo  darescit. 

-  It  is  edited  in  Halm's  Rhetores  Latini  Minores.  That  it  is  an 
abridgment  appears  from  2.  12,  where  the  reader  is  referred  for 
further  details  to  the  original. 

5  See,  e.g.,  Inst.  Or.  9.  2.  loi,  102,  106. 

*  Inst.  Or.  9.  2.  102. 

'  6.  245  :  principium  atque  locos  Celso  dictare  paratae.  Quintilian 
cites  Celsus  twenty-two  times  :  for  a  criticism  of  his  views  see  Inst. 
Or.  7.  I.  10,  9.  I.  18. 

«  3.  I.  21,  II.  3.  143. 


266    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

fame,  and  collected  a  number  of  '  best  things  '  from 
the  declamations.^ 

This  work  has  not  reached  us,  but  we  still  possess 
an  exhaustive  treatise  dedicated  to  the  orator  Vitorius 
Marcellus  by  Marcus  Fabius  QuintiHanus,  who  was 
born  about  a.d.  40  at  Calagurris  in  Spain,-  studied 
at  Rome  under  Palaemon,^  and  there  made  himself 
familiar  with  the  best  oratory  of  the  day.*  He  must 
subsequently  have  returned  to  Spain,  for  in  a.d.  68  he 
came  in  the  train  of  Galba,  who  had  been  governor  of 
the  province,  once  more  to  the  capital,^  where  he  was 
appointed,  presumably  by  Vespasian,  to  a  state- 
endowed  professorship  of  eloquence,^  which  he  held  for 
twenty  years, '^  reckoning  the  younger  Pliny  among  his 
pupils,^  and  receiving  that  rarest  of  distinctions  for  a 
man  of  his  class,  the  '  consular  decoration.'  ^  At  what 
time  he  pubhshed  a  treatise  on  the  causes  of  the  decay 
of  oratory,  to  which  he  makes  occasional  reference,^** 
but  which  has  not  reached  us,  is  quite  uncertain. 
Somewhere  about  a.d.  88  he  resigned  his  professorship, 
and  presently  set  to  work  upon  his  magnum  opus,  the 

1  Plin.,  Ep.  3.  5.  5  '  studiosi  tres  (libri)  '  .  .  .  quibus  oratorem  ab 
incunabulis  instituit  et  perfecit,  Gell.  9.  16  sqq.  libros  reliqiiit  quos 
'  Studiosorum  '  inscripsit  .  .  .  in  his  libris  .  .  .  refert  plerasque 
sentetitias  qiias  in  declamandis  controuersiis  lepide  arguteqiie  dictas 
pufat  (and  an  example  cited). 

2  Jerome,  Ad  Ann.  Abr.  2104  gives  his  birthplace  (cp.  Auson. 
Coinmem.  Professor.  Burdigal.  7).  The  year  of  birth  has  to  be 
inferred  from  1 71st.  Or.  6.  i.  14,  which  shows  him  to  have  been 
adulescens  in  a.d.  57. 

2  Schol.  on  Juv.  6.  452. 

"  For  his  relations  with  Afer  see  p.  130. 

^  Jerome,  Ad  Ann.  Abr.  2084. 

«  Jerome,  Ad  Ann.  Abr.  2104  :   cp.  Suet.  Vesp.  i8. 

'  Inst.  Or.  I  pr.  i  :  post  itnpeti-utam  studiis  nieis  qnietem,  quae 
per  itiginti  annos  erudiendis  iuuenibus  impenderam. 

8  See  p.  23S. 

*  Auson,  Grat.  Act.  7.  31  :  consularia  per  Clementem  ornamenta 
sortitus. 

1"  6  pr.  3  libritm  quern  de  causis  corruptae  eloquentiae  emisi,  al. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC    267 

composition  of  which  occupied  two  years. ^  About  a 
quarter  of  it  was  completed,  when  he  was  called  upon  to 
supervise  the  education  of  two  grand-nephews  of 
Domitian.2  The  date  of  Quintilian's  death  is  un- 
known. 

Book  One  of  the  Institutio  deals  with  the  nursery  and 
the  school.  Book  Two  gives  a  picture  of  the  ideal 
teacher  of  rhetoric,  describes  the  exercises  of  his  school 
(which  culminate  in  the  declamation),  defines  rhetoric, 
investigates  its  aims  and  claims  to  the  title  of  science. 
Book  Three  is  severely  technical,  but  among  its 
numerous  classifications  is  one  under  five  heads  of 
oratory,  which  is  all  important  for  the  arrangement  of 
the  bulk  of  the  work.  First  comes  Inventio  (the 
method  of  finding  out  something  to  say),  the  treatment 
of  which  begins  in  this  book,  where  rules  for  its  use  in 
epideictic  and  deliberative  oratory  are  furnished,  and  is 
continued  in  the  next  three,  where  its  application  to 
judicial  speeches  is  discussed  according  to  the  sections 
into  which  these  were  regularly  divided,  Exordium, 
Narrative,  Proof,  Refutation,  and  Peroration.  Book 
Seven  deals  with  the  second  head  of  Dispositio  (arrange- 
ment), which  is  studied  mainly  in  connexion  with  the 
status  or  general  heads,  under  some  one  of  which  the 
main  issue  of  a  case  must  fall.  The  next  three  books 
are  devoted  to  Elocutio  (style),  rules  being  given  for  the 
use  of  ornament,  the  arrangement  of  words,  the 
acquisition  of  a  copious  vocabulary,  the  imitation  of 
models,  the  preparation  of  speeches,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  extempore  powers. ^  Book  Eleven,  except  for  the 

'  I  pr.  I  implies  that  he  started  upon  it  a  considerable  time  alter 
the  retirement,  and  the  introductory  letter  to  Trypho  says  that  its 
composition  has  occupied  two  years.  The  date  generally  assigned 
is  A.D.  92.  *  Inst.  Or.  4  pr.  2. 

3  Books  Eight  and  Nine  deal  with  ornament  and  ortler  ol  words. 


1 


268   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

first  chapter,  which  really  belongs  to  the  previous  sec- 
tion, inculcating  the  necessity  for  tact  in  the  application 
of  the  rules  for  style,  is  concerned  with  Memoria  and 
Pronuntiatio  (a  term  that  is  extended  to  cover  elocution, 
dehvery ,  stance,  even  dress) .  Book  Twelve  deals  with 
the  orator  himself  and  the  oratory  which  he  produces. 
Under  the  first  point  Quintilian  considers  the  moral 
and  intellectual  equipment  which  he  requires,  the  age 
at  which  his  activities  should  begin,  the  kinds  of  brief 
that  he  should  or  should  not  undertake,  his  obligation, 
when  once  he  has  decided  on  the  former  course,  to 
study  the  case  with  thoroughness ;  under  the  second, 
he  introduces  us  to  the  styles  of  oratory,  drawing  some 
interesting  parallels  between  them  and  those  of  paint- 
ing and  sculpture.  In  the  last  chapter  he  urges 
retirement  in  good  season  from  active  service,  and 
concludes  with  a  protest  against  the  possible  im- 
pression that  he  has  proposed  an  ideal  that  is  not 
susceptible  of  realization. 

The  Institutio  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  products 
of  our  period,  but  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  considerable 
passage  that  calls  for  special  notice  or  translation — a 
most  unusual  phenomenon  in  a  literature  that  so 
habitually  sacrifices  the  whole  to  the  part.  The 
proem  to  Book  Six,  in  which  Quintilian  mourns  the  loss 
of  a  wife  and  two  sons,  is  much  admired,  but  it  is  in  no 
way  typical.  The  critical  estimate  of  the  chief  writers 
of  Greece  and  Rome  which  occupies  most  of  the  first 
chapter  of  the  tenth  book,  and  which,  it  must  always 
be  remembered,  professes  only  the  standpoint  of  the 
rhetorical  student's  needs,^  has  long  since  become  a 
commonplace  of  the  literary  histories.     Most  interest- 

^  10.  I.  45  genera  ipsa  leciionum  quae  praecipue  conuenire  intendenti- 
bus  ui  oratores  fiant  existimem  persequor. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC    269 

ing,  as  a  specimen  of  our  author's  thoroughness  and 
definiteness,  is  a  chapter  in  which  he  takes  one  of  the 
stock  declamation  themes  and  enumerates  successively 
the  points  of  view  which  the  average  student,  the  less 
superficial  student,  and  the  methodical  and  reflective 
student  will  discover  therein.^  Unfortunately,  it  is 
very  technical,  and  far  too  long  to  quote  here.  Perhaps 
nothing  short  of  actually  reading  the  work  through  is 
more  likely  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  its  character  than 
the  study  of  an  abstract  of  the  educational  creed  and 
the  didactic  methods  to  which  it  so  eloquently  bears 
witness. 

Plain  as  is  the  influence  upon  Quintilian  of  Aristotle's 
Rhetoric  and  Cicero's  kindred  writings,  plain  as  is  his 
debt  to  numerous  other  predecessors  whom  he  quotes 
or  whose  language  he  almost  reproduces,  the  Institutio 
has  nevertheless  the  unity  and  individuaUty  of  an 
original  composition.  Having  taken  the  stock  rules 
of  the  rhetorical  schools  and  tested  them  in  the  fire  of 
practical  common  sense,  QuintiUan  has  illustrated 
those  which  he  has  found  fit  to  survive  with  all  the 
resources  which  long  experience  and  an  acute  judg- 
ment have  put  at  his  disposal.  Ancient  rhetoric 
suffered  severely  at  the  hands  of  men  who  beHeved  that 
classification  was  synonymous  with  explanation  : 
Quintilian  sets  his  face  against  such  views,  saying 
repeatedly,  '  No  matter  what  the  label,  provided  we 
know  what  is  meant.'  ^  He  notes,  pertinently  enough, 
that  the  frequency  with  which  authorities  are  found  to 
differ  is  partly  due  to  the  vanity  of  teachers  who  would 
fain  reckon  among  those  who  have  contributed  some- 

*  7.  I.  42-62. 

*  3.  6.  2  nee  interest  discentium  quibus  quidque  nominibus  appelletur, 
duni  res  ipsa  manifesla  sit. 


270    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

thing  to  their  subject. ^  As  for  rules,  to  make  a  fetish 
of  them  is  to  crush  initiative.^  After  all,  they  are  but 
the  outcome  of  general  observation,  and  should  always 
give  way  before  the  special  needs  of  the  case,  or  that 
part  of  it  with  which  we  are  at  the  moment  concerned.^ 
They  obviously  cannot  cover  everything  :  painters 
and  potters  have  often  to  represent  an  animal  or 
produce  a  vessel  that  they  have  never  learned  to  attempt 
before.*  This,  of  course,  does  not  mean  that  it  is  all  a 
matter  of  genius,  that  there  is  no  need  to  study.  '  No 
one  need  imagine  that  he  is  going  to  get  eloquent  at 
the  cost  of  some  one  else's  exertions  :  we  must  cut 
down  sleep,  persevere,  strive,  get  pale,  and  form  our 
own  powers,  our  own  experience,  our  own  method.  .  .  . 
You  can  show  a  man  his  way,  but  every  one  will  have 
his  own  pace.'  °  With  the  modern  sentimentaHst  and 
his  unwiUingness  to  give  young  brains  serious  work 
Quintilian  would  have  httle  sympathy.  '  To  learn  is 
as  natural  to  man  as  flight  to  birds,  speed  to  horses,'  he 
says,^  and  holds  that  the  young  possess  almost  unUmited 
capacity  for  sustaining  mental  effort — just  as  they  can 
fall  down  again  and  again,  and  never  hurt  themselves.' 
Of  course,  the  pace  must  not  be  forced  too  early,  and  we 
must  not,  in  the  desire  to  get  on  to  more  showy  work. 


^  3.  I.  7  rt(^  ea  quae  rudia  atque  imperfecta  adhuc  erant  adicientibus 
quod  inuenissent  scriptoribus,  mox,  ut  aliquid  sui  uiderentur  adferre, 
etiam  recta  mutantibus. 

2  4.  2.  85  amentis  est  superstitione  praeceptortim  contra  rationem 
causae  trahi. 

^5.  10.  120  neque  enim  artibus  edit  is  factum  est  ut  argumenta 
inueniremus,  sed  dicta  sunt  omnia  antequam  praeciperentur :  mox  ea 
scriptores  obseruata  et  collecta  ediderunt  (cp.  Cic.  De  Or.  i.  146),  2.  13. 
2  erat  rhetorica  res  prorsus  facilis  et  parua,  si  uno  et  breui  praescripto 
contineretur.  sed  mutantur  pleraque  causis,  temporibus,  occasione, 
necessitate:  cp.  4.  i.  64. 

*  7.  10.  9.  *  7.  10.  14. 

«  I.  I.  I.  ^  I.  12.  8-10. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC   271 

introduce  short  cuts  that  really  only  hinder  progress.^ 
QuintiUan  is  a  close  observer  and  gives  due  weight  to 
psychological  considerations,  emphasizing  the  im- 
portance of  studying  the  idiosyncrasies  of  the  pupils, ^ 
appreciating  the  value  of  questions  as  a  means  for 
securing  their  attention  and  leading  them  on  to  find 
out  things  for  themselves.^  He  advocates  the  taking 
of  places  in  class  ^  and  competitive  stimulus  in  general  : 
'  ambition  may  be  a  vice,  but  it  produces  virtues.'  ^ 
He  has  some  excellent  rules  for  correction  of  written 
work,^  and  tells  an  amusing  anecdote  of  how  a  well- 
known  professor,  finding  his  nephew  plunged  in  despair 
by  a  theme  over  which  he  had  spent  two  days  without 
being  able  so  much  as  to  start  upon  it,  smilingly 
suggested  that  he  might  be  trying  to  write  better  than — 
he  could.'  Of  the  teacher's  saving  gift,  the  sense  of 
humour,  our  book  shows  many  signs  :  one  sees  it  in  the 
very  representative  collection  of  Roman  jests  contained 
in  the  chapter  on  Laughter,^  in  such  sallies  as  his 
criticism  of  the  doctrine  which  held  that  counsel  who 
had  the  facts  against  them  should  dispense  with 
narrative  altogether  :    '  An  easy  rule  that — an  easier 

*  I.  4.  22  quod  monere  supeyuacicum  erat,  nisi  amhitiosa  fesiinatione 
plerique  a  posterioribus  inciperent  et,  diim  ostentare  discipulos  circa 
speciosiora  nialunt,  compendia  nwrareniur. 

*  2.  8.  I  sqq. 

^  2.  5.  13  sic  (by  the  use  of  questions)  audientibus  securitas  aberit 
.  .  .  simulque  ad  id  perducenitir  quod  ex  hoc  quaeritur,  lit  inueniant 
ipsi  et  intellegant. 

*  I.  2.  23  non  inutilem  scio  seruatum  esse  a  pyaeceptoribus  meis 
morem,  qui  cum  pueros  in  classes  distribuerent  ordinem  dicendi 
secundum  uires  ingenii  dabant,  et  ita  superiore  loco  quisque  declamabat 
ut  praecedere  profectu  uidebatur  (24)  .  .  .  ea  nobis  ingens  palmae 
contentio,  ducere  uero  classem  multo  piilcherrimum.  nee  de  hoc  semel 
decretum  erat  :   tricesimus  dies  reddebat  uicto  certaminis  potestatem. 

*  I.  2.  22  licet  ipsa  uitium  sit  ambitio,  frequenter  tamen  causa 
uirtutum  est.  *  2.  4.  10-14. 

'  10.  3.  13,  14  {numquid  tu  '  inquit '  melius  dicere  uis  quam  poles  P  '). 
'  6.  3. 


272    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

were  not  to  plead  at  all !  '  ^  in  the  passage  where,  after 
maintaining  that  pupils  profit  as  much  from  a  critical 
lecture  on  some  famous  speech  as  from  the  correction 
of  exercises  of  their  own,  he  slily  adds,  '  And  they  like 
it  better  :  every  one  would  sooner  hear  some  one  else's 
errors  criticized  than  his  own.'  ^  Generally  speaking, 
one  is  struck  byQuintilian's  breadth  of  view.  Of  course 
he  shares  the  prejudice  of  his  age,  that  education  must 
mean  rhetorical  training.  But  it  is  noticeable  that  he 
does  once  or  twice  take  cognizance  of  the  special  re- 
quirements of  those  who  were  not  proposing  to  become 
barristers,  pointing  out,  for  instance,  that  the  com- 
position of  imaginary  speeches  of  Cato  or  Cicero  was  a 
very  useful  task  for  the  future  poet  or  historian.^ 
More  important  is  the  loftiness  of  his  ideals  in  regard  to 
the  education  which  his  orator  will  require.  '  I  want 
no  one  for  a  reader  who  is  going  to  calculate  how  much 
his  profession  is  likely  to  bring  him  in,'  he  says  in  an 
early  chapter,  and  one  of  his  last  sentences  contains  a 
similar  protest  against  mercenary  estimates  of  the 
value  of  his  subject.^  His  curriculum  is  even  more 
ambitious  than  that  which  Cicero's  Antonius  regards 
as  so  overloaded — it  is,  he  expressly  notes,  to  turn  out 
something  of  a  sage,  but  a  sage  who  is  still  a  Roman,  a 
man  equal  to  the  turmoil  of  public  life  and  yet  possessed 
of  the  moral  qualities  of  a  philosopher.^    These  lofty 

^  4.  2.  66  et  sane  nihil  est  facilius — nisi  prorsus  totam  causam 
omnino  non  agere. 

^  2.  5.  16  qtiin  itnmo  etiam  iucundius  {erit)  :  aliena  enim  uitia 
reprehendi  quisque  mauolt  quam  sua. 

*  3. 8.  49  poetis  quoque  aut  historiarum  fuhiris  scriptoribus  pltmmum 
confert. 

*  I.  12.  17  «e  uelim  quidem  lector  em  dari  mihi  quid  studia  refer  ant 
computaturum  :   cp.  12.  11.  29. 

^  12.  2.  7  ilium  quem  instituo  Romanum  qtiemdam  uelim  esse 
sapientem,  qui  non  secretis  disputationibus  sed  rerum  experimentis 
atque  operibus  uere  civilem  uirufn  exhibeat. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC  273 

conceptions  are  not  accompanied  by  any  contempt  for 
mere  detail.  It  is  characteristic  of  our  author  that 
a  twelfth  part  of  his  work  is  occupied  with  quite 
elementary  education.  '  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
trifle,  where  learning  is  concerned,'  he  explains,  when 
stopping  to  discuss  whether  a  composition  should  be 
in  the  first  stage  done  on  wax  tablets  or  parchment : 
with  the  latter  he  feels  that  the  constant  necessity  of  re- 
course to  the  inkpot  tends  to  clog  the  flow  of  thought. ^ 
Like  Hippocrates,  he  is  not  ashamed  in  the  interests  of 
science  to  confess  that  certain  views  of  his  have  changed 
with  the  years  ;  ^  nay,  he  admits  that  by  the  time  he 
discovered  the  proper  mode  of  teaching  a  particular 
thing,  he  had  got  so  accustomed  to  the  old  one  that  he 
found  himself  unable  to  use  it  very  effectively. ^  And 
he  feels  that  he  knows  but  Httle  even  now.  '  It  is  a 
mighty  subject,'  he  says,  '  with  many  ramifications  : 
fresh  points  come  up  almost  every  day,  and  the  last 
word  on  it  will  never  be  pronounced.'  *  What  a  con- 
trast to  the  frivolous  promises  and  boastful  claims  of 
some  of  his  successors  in  the  chair  of  education  ! 

QuintiUan  is  more  than  a  teacher  of  rhetoric.  His 
strictures  upon  the  '  fine  writing  of  to-day,'  ^  with  its 
admiration  for  the  corrupt  '  just  because  it  is  corrupt/ 
its  scorn  for  '  everything  that  Nature  has  dictated,'  " 
prove  him  a  critic  of  real  insight.  His  sense  of  pro- 
portion is  so  strong.     Seeing,  as  plainly  as  Petronius 

*  10.  3.  31  sqq.  [nihil  in  studiis  paruum  est). 

*  3.  6.  63  sqq. 

'  2.  5.  2  longa  consuetudo  aliter  docendi  fecerat  legem. 

*  2.  13.  17  late  fusum  opus  et  multiplex  et  prope  cotidie  novum  et  de 
quo  nutnquam  dicta  erunt  omnia. 

^  10.  I.  43  recens  haec  lascivia  deliciaeque. 

*  2.  5.  10  nan  laudaniur  mode  .  .  .  sed,  quod  est  peius,  propter  hoc 
ipsumquodsuntpraualaudantur,8pT.2btios  .  .  .  quibus  sordetomne 
quod  vaiura  dictauii. 

S 


274    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

and  the  author  of  the  Dialogus,  the  weak  points  of 
the  declamations,  he  still  maintains  their  utihty  when 
constructed  on  proper  lines/  even  allows  that  some 
of  the  departures  from  forensic  practice  are  made  in 
the  learner's  interest  and  may  be  justified.^  He 
concedes  '  much  merit '  to  the  moderns,  and  holds  that 
their  tendencies  are  not  to  be  entirely  ignored.^  The 
chapter  on  imitation,  the  theory  of  which  we  have  seen 
more  than  once  in  this  book  exercising  considerable 
effect  upon  the  style  of  Roman  hterature,  is  full  of 
interesting  observations,  one  of  which,  directed  against 
the  making  one's  chief  model  one's  only  model,*  should 
have  protected  him  from  the  hbel  that  makes  him  the 
first  Ciceronian.  He  has,  of  course,  the  utmost  respect 
for  the  great  orator,  and  it  is  hard  to  understand  how 
even  so  blind  a  Ciceronian  as  Ascham  could  discern  in 
him  a  '  lust  to  dissent  from  Tully.'  He  draws  most  of 
his  quotations  from  Cicero's  speeches  and  gauges  a 
young  man's  powers  by  the  measure  of  his  admiration 
for  them.^  But  Quintihan's  grammar,  vocabulary,^ 
ornament,  even  the  run  of  his  sentence,  are  those  of  the 
Silver  Age  :  only  a  superficial  observer  can  be  deceived 
by  the  fact  that,  following  his  own  principles,  he  has 
made  a  comparatively  sober  and  sparing  use  of  its 
chief  mannerisms. 

Quintihan  had  attacked  the  influence  of  Seneca 
upon  hterature  :  '^  Fronto's  archaizing  school  seems  to 
have  done  the  same  for  Quintilian.  For  years  after- 
wards, save  that  Jerome  tells  us  that  Hilary  of  Poitiers 

1  2.  lo.  3  sqq. 

*  4.  2.  29  :  cp.  also  2.  10.  5  (quoted  on  p.  14"). 

3  2.  5-  23,  12.  10.  45  sqq.         .       .     .       ^  ,       •     ■.      , 

*  10.  2,  esp.  §  24  non  qui  maxtme  tmitandus  et  solus  imttanans  est. 
''  ID.  I.  112  ille  se  profecisse  sciat  cut  Cicero  ualde  placebit. 

6  See  e.g.  the  lexicons,  s.v.  circa  and  ciira. 
">  See  p.  214. 


GRAMMAR,  CRITICISM,  AND  RHETORIC    275 

imitated  his  Institutio,  and  the  fourth-century  rhetorician 
JuUus  Victor  borrows  wholesale  from  him,  he  appears 
only  as  the  author  of  declamations.  These  indeed 
were  all  that  Petrarch  at  first  possessed  of  him,  but  by 
1350-  when  he  penned  our  author  a  letter,^  he  had 
obtained  the  other  work,  though  only  in  the  mutilated 
form  in  which  the  Middle  Ages  seem  generally  to  have 
known  it.  The  discovery  of  the  complete  book  was 
due  to  Poggio's  researches  at  St.  Gall.  Its  influence 
upon  educationists  like  Vittorio,  Aeneas  Silvio,  Guarino, 
Agricola,  Bebel,  Erasmus,  Melanchthon,  and  Vives  was 
immense. 2  Elyot  uses  it  freely  in  his  Cover nour, 
Ascham,  who  twice  quotes  it  slightingly,  borrows  at 
least  once,  with  but  inadequate  acknowledgment,  from 
it.  Comenius  seldom  mentions  QuintiHan,  but  RolHn's 
Traits  makes  good  use  of  his  principles,  and  French 
composition  masters  sing  his  praises  to  this  day.  He 
shares  with  Lucretius  and  Catullus  the  rare  honour  of 
having  received  warm  praise  from  so  severe  a  critic 
of  Roman  letters  as  Theodor  Mommsen.^ 

Two  collections  of  declamations  have  reached  us 
under  Quintihan's  name.  One,  which  consists  of 
nineteen  complete  pieces,  the  only  things  of  the  kind 
that  exist,  contains  passages  which  Jerome  and  others 
quote  as  his  work.*  The  declamation  which  has  for 
theme  the  destruction  of  a  poor  man's  bees  ^  by  a 
millionaire  who  resents  their  trespasses  upon  his  estate, 

1  De  reb.  fani.  24.  7. 

'  See  A.  Messer,  Q.  als  Didaktiker  und  sein  Einfluss  auf  die 
didaktisch-padagogische  Theorie  desHumanismus  in  Neue  Jabrb.  1897. 

^  Provinces,  i.  77  (E.  T.). 

*  Jerome,  De  Cer.  Pasch.  i,  Servius  on  Aen.  3.  661,  Ennod.  Diet. 
21,  etc. 

^  Decl.  13. 


276    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

has  achieved  a  certain  fame,  being  mentioned,  for 
instance,  by  Cowley  in  his  essay  on  solitude.  Style 
and  vocabulary  make  it  difficult  to  believe  that  this 
collection  is  older  than  the  second  century.^  The 
other,  which  is,  like  Seneca's  book,  an  anthology,  seems 
to  me  worthy  of  the  first  century,  and  not  improbably 
the  outcome  of  Quintilian's  activities.  That  it  was 
actually  composed  by  him  is  unlikely  :  he  never 
mentions  it,  as  he  does  other  pubHcations  of  his,  and 
the  subjects  and  treatment  alike  are  not  what  we 
should  expect  to  find  in  a  work  belonging  to  his  latest 
}ears.  But  he  does  mention  once  that  on  two  occasions 
pupils  of  his  published,  on  their  own  account,  a 
rechauffe  of  the  notes  they  had  taken  at  his  lectures, ^ 
and,  although  there  are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  believ- 
ing that  our  collection  is  identical  with  either  of  those 
productions,  it  may  very  well  have  arisen  in  a  similar 
way, 

*  That  declamations  that  were  not  Quintihan's  had  been  intro- 
duced into  a  collection  of  those  that  were  is  stated  by  Trebellius 
PoUio,  Trig.  Tyr.  4.  2  :  fuit  {Postmnus  lunior)  ita  in  declamationibus 
disertus  nt  eius  controuersiae  Quintiliano  dicanhir  insertae. 

*  Inst.  Or.  I  pr.  7  dito  iam  sub  nomine  meo  libri  ferebantur  ariis 
rhetoricae  neque  editi  a  mc  neque  in  hoc  comparati.  namque  alterum, 
scrmonc  per  bidmun  Juibifo,  pueri  qiiibus  id  praestahatur  exceperant ; 
alterum  pluribns  sane  diebiis  quantum  notando  consequi  potuerant 
interceptum  boni  iuuenes,  sed  nimium  amantes  mci,  temerario  editionis 
honore  uulgauerant. 


CHAPTER  XII 
SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE 

I.  Medicine 


A 


ULUS  CORNELIUS  CELSUS,  of  whom 
Columella  speaks  as  a  contemporary  ^  and 
whose  agricultural  work  was  used  by  a  Grae- 
cinus  who  perished  on  the  scaffold  under  Caligula,^  wrote 
upon  agriculture,  medicine,  rhetoric,  military  science, 
philosophy,  and  perhaps  law.^  He  was  perhaps  the 
author  of  an  encyclopaedia  like  that  in  which  Varro 
had  treated,  along  with  medicine  and  architecture, 
the  seven  liberal  arts  that  afterwards  constituted  the 
mediaeval  trivium  and  quadrivium.  At  any  rate,  as  the 
MSS.  of  his  medical  treatise,  the  only  one  that  has 
reached  us,  entitle  its  first  book  the  '  Sixth  Book  of 
the  Arts,'  it  is  clear  that  this  must  have  been  part  of 
a  larger  work.     That   the   five   previous  books  were 

^  I.  I.  14  non  minorem  tamen  laudem  {than  Varro,  Virgil,  Hyginus) 
menierunt  nostrorum  temporum  uiri,  Cornelius  Celsus  et  lulius 
A  tticus. 

2  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Graecinus  who  used  Celsus 
(Plin.,  Nat.  Hist.  14.  33)  was  the  Graecinus  whose  execution  is 
mentioned  in  Sen.  Ben.  2.  21.  5,  Tac.  Agr.  4.  i. 

*  For  his  agricultural  and  rhetorical  works  see  pp.  283,  265 
respectively  ;  for  one  on  military  science,  Quint.  12.  11.  24,  a  passage 
which  may  fairly,  in  view  of  the  context,  be  taken  to  imply  works  on 
philosophy  and  law.  That  Celsus  did  write  on  the  former  subject 
is  certain  :  see  p.  195. 

2T7 


278    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

concerned  with  agriculture  some  passages  of  this  same 
treatise  make  almost  certain.^ 

Celsus  can  hardly  have  been  a  specialist  in  all  the 
subjects  upon  which  he  wrote,  and  it  is  scarcely  to  be 
doubted  that  he  was  not  a  medical  man.  Pliny  ^  does 
not  style  him  medicus  as  he  does  the  Roman  doctors 
Opilius,  Granius,  and  Caecilius,  and  occasional  remarks 
hke  '  I  prefer  drastic  remedies/  or  '  I  cannot  remember 
a  case  of  cure  by  this  method/  ^  are  quite  compatible 
with  his  having  been  a  landed  proprietor  who  personally 
supervised  the  nursing  of  his  slaves.  It  was  not  mere 
chance  that  led  him  to  make  his  medicine  follow 
immediately  on  his  agriculture :  Cato's  book  on 
farming  gives  prescriptions  for  men  as  well  as  beasts. 
Nevertheless,  he  has  a  good  acquaintance  with  the 
works  of  men  like  Hippocrates,  Heraclides  of  Tarentum, 
Asclepiades,  Themison,  and  Philoxenus.*  And  if  an 
attempt  to  do  for  Greek  medicine  what  Cicero  has 
done  for  Greek  philosophy  necessarily  results  in 
something  of  less  literary  interest  than  the  Academica 
or  De  Finibus,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  in  re- 
producing his  authorities  Celsus  displays  a  clarity  of 
thought  and  style  for  which  students  of  those  famous 
works  sometimes  sigh  in  vain.  The  mannerisms  of 
Silver  Latin  find  little  scope  in  the  De  Medicina,  which 
indeed  supphes  us  with  convincing  proof  of  the  ability 
of  a  plain,  yet  elegant  Latin  to  support  the  strain  which 
the  needs  of  a  highly  technical  subject  must  put  upon 
any  generous  and  dignified  language. 

^  See  the  opening  sentence  ut  alimenta  sanis  corporibus  Agriculiura 
sic  sanitatem  aegris  Medicina  promittit,  and  cp.  5.  28.  [6  sicut  in 
pecoribus  propositi.  That  the  agriculture  work  was  in  five  books 
we  know  from  CokTm.  i.  i.  14. 

^  See  the  indices  to  Books  28  and  29.  ^  3.  24  ;   7.  7.  6. 

*  T!ie  first  four  of  these  he  cites  pretty  often,  Philoxenus  he  only 
ineuiions  (in  the  preface  to  Book  7). 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    279 

The  first  four  books  handle  Dietetics,  the  last  of  them, 
in  which  diseases  of  particular  parts  are  discussed, 
opening  with  an  account  of  the  internal  organs.  Phar- 
macology occupies  Books  Five  and  Six,  and  the  remain- 
ing two  are  devoted  to  Surgery.  As  Book  Eight  is 
mainly  osteological,  its  first  chapter  gives  a  description 
of  the  human  skeleton.  The  prefaces  to  Books  One 
and  Seven  are  particularly  readable,  the  latter  giving 
a  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  surgery,  and  summariz- 
ing the  quaUties  requisite  for  success  therein,  whilst  the 
former  contains  a  fairly  full  history  of  medicine,  in 
which  justice  is  done  to  the  dispute  between  Empirics 
and  Theorists,  and  Celsus  takes  up  the  middle  position, 
that  experience  is  paramount,  but  the  knowledge  of 
nature  has  its  part  to  play,  that  dissection  is  necessary, 
vivisection  (of  criminals)  not,  since  the  special  know- 
ledge it  gives  can  be  acquired,  at  greater  trouble  no 
doubt,  but  more  decorously,  by  the  examination  of 
wounds. 

Celsus  has  the  open,  critical  mind  of  the  intelligent 
layman.  He  believes  in  the  existence  of  remedies  not 
recorded  in  the  text-books,^  realizes  that  Hippocrates' 
rules  for  the  feeding  of  invaHds  are  vitiated  by  his 
regard  for  the  mystics  and  the  theory  of  numbers,^  is 
never  impressed  by  a  mere  name  : 


The  same  remedies  do  not  suit  aU.  That  is  why  famous 
physicians  have  sung  the  praises  of  one  thing  after  another 
as  the  one  and  only  remedy,  according  as  each  in  turn  has 
yielded  good  results.  So  when  a  given  treatment  does  not 
have  the  desired  effect,  it  isn't  right  to  think  more  of  its 
advocate  than  your  patient.^ 

^  See  e.g.  4.  7  stib  fin.,  5.  28.  7,  6.  9  sub  fin. 

»  3.  4  (p.  81,  Daremberg).  ^  3.  i.  (p.  75  D.). 


28o    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Sometimes  one  suspects  him  of  having  his  tongue  in 
his  cheek  : 

There  's  nothing  new  in  the  method  by  which  some 
doctors  cure  patients  who  have  failed  to  improve  under  the 
care  of  safer  men.  .  .  .  After  the  death  of  Hippocrates 
there  arose  one  Petro,  who  would  take  a  patient  with  fever 
on  him,  smother  him  up  in  blankets  to  make  him  very  hot 
and  thirsty,  and  then,  when  the  fever  began  to  abate  a 
little,  give  him  cold  water  to  drink  :  if  he  thus  got  a  sweat, 
he  reckoned  he  had  effected  a  cure  ;  if  not,  he  plied  his  m.an 
with  more  cold  water,  etc.,  etc.  .  .  .  And  this  constituted 
his  whole  science,  which  men  whom  the  Hippocrateans 
had  failed  to  cure  rated  as  highly  as  do  nowadays  people 
who  have  been  ever  so  long  under  representatives  of  the 
school  of  Erasistratus  or  Herophilus,  without  getting 
relief.  All  that  doesn't,  of  course,  make  the  method  any  the 
less  rash  :  people  who  get  it  at  the  start  usually  die.  .  .  . 
It  's  more  likely  to  succeed  with  other  men's  patients  than 
your  own.'  * 

He  Hkes  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  the  best  of  rules 
must  be  modified  by  special  circumstances,  and  twice 
in  this  connexion  expresses  his  contempt  for  the  men 
who  want  to  shirk  the  hard  work  their  profession 
involves  : 

These '  general  rules  '  are  a  godsend  for  men  who  run  large 
nursing  homes ;  and  find  the  task  of  thinking  out  the  needs 
of  the  individual  uncongenial.- 

There  is  only  oneway  of  deciding  if  a  patient  can  have  food 
or  not — to  visit  him  frequently  and  test  his  strength  : 
so  long  as  he  has  a  reserve,  you  can  persevere  with  the 
fasting,  but  when  you  're  afraid  that  he  's  getting  weak, 
you  must  come  to  the  help  with  nourishment.  ...  It  is 
obvious  from  this  that  one  man  cannot  attend  many 
patients,  but  of  course  a  large  practice  pays  best  and  they 
who  think  only  of  their  incomes  welcome  with  open  arms 
a  treatment  that  involves  no  close  attendance.^ 

He  can  be  severe  on  patients  too,  whether  they  be 

^  3.  9  (p.  91  D-)-  ^  I  pr.  (p.  II  D.).  9  3.  4  (p.  80  D,). 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    281 

ladies  who  want  pimples  and  freckles  removed,^  or 
bons  vivants  who 

dictate  to  their  physician  their  times  for  food,  or,  if  they 
make  him  a  present  of  the  hour,  claim  the  right  to  fix  the 
amount,  or  else,  leaving  these  points  to  him,  want  a  free 
hand  as  to  its  character,  and  think  they  are  treating  him 
most  handsomely  in  aU  this,  as  though  it  were  a  question  of 
his  powers,  not  their  cure.^ 

The  elder  Phny  used  this  work,^  but  its  reputation 
seems  to  have  dechned  by  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  when  Marcellus  in  his  book  on  medicines 
could  confuse  it  with  that  of  Scribonius.*  Between 
that  date  and  the  Renaissance  period  it  is  rarely  cited, 
though  some  of  the  MSS.  belong  to  the  tenth,  eleventh, 
and  twelfth  centuries.  In  1426  Panormita  describes 
newly  discovered  MS.  (since  lost)  to  Guarino,  a  pupil  of 
whose  unearthed  next  year  a  more  complete  copy 
which  still  ranks  among  our  best  sources  for  the  text.^ 
The  editio  princeps  of  1478  is  one  of  the  earhest  of 
printed  books.  Bacon  and  Milton  cite  or  recommend 
the  work,  whilst  Johnson,  confessing  in  one  of  his 
letters  that  he  has  been  consulting  it  in  regard  to  a 
fever,  remarks,  '  I  would  bear  something  rather  than 
Celsus  should  be  detected  in  error.'  The  value  of  the 
work  nowadays  hes,  of  course,  in  the  dehberate  and 
well-ordered  summary  which  it  contains  of  almost  all 

»  6.  5  (p.  224  D)  paene  ineptiae  sunt  curare  uaros  et  lentiailas  et 
ephelidas — sed  eripi  tamen  feminis  cura  cultus  sui  non  potest. 

*  2.  16.  ,        •      , 

»  See  the  indices  to  Books  20-29  and  31.  Celsus  is  also  cited  in 
those  to  the  non-medical  Books  7,  8,  10,  11,  14,  15,  17-19,  but  in 
some  of  these  cases  the  reference  will  be  to  his  agricultural  work. 
So  certainly  in  the  case  of  Books  14,  15,  17,  and  18  :   cp.  10.  150. 

*  Reproducing  the  dedicatory  letter  of  Scribonius  to  Callistus,  he 
heads  it  '  Cornelius  Celsus  to  Callistus.' 

*  Sabbadini,  Le  Scoperte  dei  Qodici  Latini  e  Greet,  pp.  99,  I03- 


282    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

that  was  best  in  ancient  practice  and  teaching  down  to 
the  time  of  its  composition. 

Another  medical  work  that  belongs  to  our  period  is  a 
collection  of  prescriptions  {compositiones)  addressed  by 
the  physician  Scribonius  Largus  to  Callistus,  one  of 
Claudius'  freedmen.  The  preface  and  (alas!  too  rare) 
digressions  are  written  in  literary  Latin,  and  whilst 
the  latter  are  mainly  of  antiquarian  interest  and  brief, 
a  specimen  of  the  former  seems  to  me  desirable. 
Scribonius  has  been  dwelling  upon  the  ignorance  which 
medical  men  show  in  reference  to  the  history  of  their 
own  science,  and  now  proceeds  : 

It  is  quite  the  exception  for  a  man  to  take  any  trouble  to 
ascertain  the  credentials  of  the  doctor  to  whose  charge  he 
proposes  to  entrust  himself  and  his  family.  And  yet, 
no  one  would  think  of  having  his  portrait  painted  by  any 
one  whose  skill  had  not  been  tried  and  approved  in  various 
ways,  and  every  one  likes  to  have  correct  weights  and 
measures,  so  as  to  prevent  the  possibility  of  mistakes 
occurring  in  regard  to  matters  that  are  by  no  means  vital. 
The  fact  is,  there  are  people  who  regard  anything  as  of 
more  importance  than  their  own  persons.  And  so  there  is 
no  longer  any  compulsion  put  upon  medical  men  to  study, 
and  some  of  them,  not  content  with  knowing  nothing 
about  the  ancient  physicians  to  whom  is  due  the  state  of 
perfection  which  the  science  has  now  attained,  have  the 
audacity  to  invent  lies  about  them.  And  when  no  attempt 
is  made  to  differentiate  between  one  man  and  another, 
good  and  bad  being  put  in  the  same  class,  all  regard  for 
training  and  method  disappears,  and  men  devote  them- 
selves to  the  attainment  of  what  will  cost  less  trouble,  and 
yet  in  all  probability  bring  as  great  a  name  and  as  large  an 
income.^ 

The  work  must  have  been  pubhshed  at  some  time 
between  the  British  expedition  of  a.d.  43,  to  which  it 
alludes,  and  the  fall  of  Messahna,  whom  it  mentions 

1  p.  4,  ed.  Helmreich. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    283 

with  respect,  in  a.d.  48,^  Marcelliis  Empiricus  borrows 
freely  from  it,  and  then  we  hear  no  more  of  it  until  1528, 
the  year  of  the  editio  pyinceps  :  the  MS.  upon  which 
this  was  based  has  vanished,  and  no  other  is  known 
to  us. 

2.  Agriculture 

Of  Celsus'  agricultural  work  in  five  books  ^  our 
knowledge  is  slight  and  is  derived  mainly  from 
Columella's  not  infrequent  references  to  it.  Most  of 
these  are  highly  technical,  but  some  idea  of  the  style  of 
the  composition  may  be  gathered  from  his  remark  that 
it  is  impossible  to  give  rules  for  the  treatment  of  bee- 
hives with  more  elegance  than  his  predecessor  ^  has 
done.     It  was  used  by  the  elder  Phny.* 

Lucius  Junius  Moderatus  Columella  himself  was  a 
native  of  Gades  ^  and  a  contemporary  of  his  fellow- 
countryman,  Seneca  the  philosopher.^  Book  One  of 
his  De  Re  Rustica  deals  with  general  points  such  as  the 
site  of  the  farm,  its  buildings  and  staff ;  Book  Two 
with  agriculture  proper;  Books  Three  to  Five  with  the 
culture  of  vines,  ohves,  and  fruit  trees  in  general ; 
Books  Six  to  Nine  with  live  stock  (many  details  being 
given  as  to  the  treatment  of  sick  animals)  ;  Book  Ten, 
which  is  written  in  hexameters,  with  gardening ;  Book 
Eleven  with  the  duties  of  the  uilicus  or  farm-baiUff  and 
gardening  again  —  this  time  in  prose  ;  Book  Twelve 
with  the  duties  of  the  bailiffs  wife  [uilica),  which  are 

1  §§  163,  160.  2  See  pp.  277,  278.  ^  Colum.  9.  2.  i. 

*  See  p.  28 i^ 

'  8.  16.  9  in  nostra  Gadium  municipio. 

8  3.  3.  3  {regio)  quam  possidet  Seneca  uir  excellentis  ingenii  atque 
doctrinae.  Comparison  with  Plin.  Nat.  Hist.  14.  49-51  makes  it 
fairly  certain  that  the  estate  to  which  Cohimella  aUudes  did  not  pass 
intoSeneca's  liands  very  long  before  his  death. 


284    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

represented  mainly  by  a  collection  of  recipes  for 
pickling  and  preserving  and  the  making  of  pitch  and 
certain  kinds  of  oil  and  wine.  The  MSS.  also  present 
us  with  a  treatise  on  trees  {De  Arboribus),  handling,  in 
a  space  considerably  smaller  than  that  of  an  average 
book  of  the  other  work,  the  subject  matter  of  its  third, 
fourth,  and  iifth  books,  but  containing  much  that  these 
do  not  contain  and  apparently  composed  before  them. 
The  reference  in  the  lirst  sentence  to  '  Book  One  on 
Agriculture  '  suggests  that  it  followed  a  vohime  which 
covered  in  the  same  way  Books  One  and  Two  of  the 
larger  work :  there  were,  perhaps,  other  such  volumes 
representing  its  later  books. 

Columella  is  a  specialist,  and  proud  of  his  calHng. 
He  thrills  with  satisfaction  to  think  that  folk  will  pay 
twice  the  ordinary  price  for  quicksets  of  his  growing, 
that  he  has  discovered  how  to  bore  a  hole  in  a  tree 
without  leaving  behind  the  sawdust  that  hinders 
effective  grafting,  that  his  improved  gauge  frustrates 
the  ditcher's  artful  attempts  to  make  his  trench  seem 
deeper  than  it  is.^  He  is  a  practical  man,  likes  to  tell 
us  how  many  working  days  an  operation  requires,  does 
not  expect  any  one  to  listen  to  rules  for  vine  culture 
till  he  has  been  convinced  that  vine  culture  can  be  pro- 
fitable.^  No  detail  seems  petty  to  him,  as  he  warns  us 
to  build  off  the  high  road,  because  of  the  depredations 
of  passers-by  and  the  cost  of  entertaining  every  one 
who  chooses  to  break  his  journey  at  your  place, ^  notes 
that  dogs'  names  must  not  be  very  long,  nor  yet  shorter 
than  two  syllables,*  describes  a  fowlhouse  with  all  the 
care,  and  none  of  the  clumsiness,  of  Vitruvius.^    And 

^  3-  3-  13,  4-  29-  15,  3-  13-  II  sqq. 

'  2.  12  (13)  passim,  3.  3.  i.  '  i.  5.  7. 

*  7-  12.  13.  »  8.  3. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    285 

yet  he  is  exempt  from  that  common  failing  of  the 
practical  man,  contempt  for  the  past  history  of  his 
calling.     It  is  from  Columella,  not  Varro,  that  we  get 
most  of  our  knowledge  of  the  Carthaginian  Mago's 
hand-book,  which  a  pedantic  senate,  alarmed  at  the 
decay  of  Roman  farming,  had  translated  and  circulated 
in  Italy,  regardless,  as  educational  authorities  will  be, 
of  the  fact  that  the  precious  flower  of  one  soil  may  be  the 
rank  weed  of  another.!   Cato  and  Varro  are  often  quoted, 
the  latter  less  often  than  he  is  used ;  a  good  many  other 
authorities   are   mentioned  several   times.     Columella 
meets  his  predecessors  on  equal  terms,  often  refuting 
the  views  of  individuals,  sometimes  an  almost  absolute 
consensus.^    The    ridiculous    medicine    of    the    day, 
however,  finds  him  a  willing  dupe,  and  he  is  quite 
convinced  that  the  sick  cow  is  relieved  by  having  a 
circle  scratched  in  its  ear  and  lungwort  inserted  in  a 
hole  pricked  at  the  centre,  and  that  the  sight  of  water- 
fowl   will    cure    its    colic. ^     Worse    still— for    one    is 
famiUar  with  the  fact  that  the  most  practical  minds 
are  not  always  proof  against  superstition — nothing  can 
be  more  careless  than  the  calendar  of  Book  Eleven, 
where  the  statements  as  to  the  movements  of  the  stars, 
by  which  important  operations  are  to  be  timed,  are 
infinitely  worse  than  useless.     The  farmers  seem  to 
have  known  as  little  of  Caesar's  labours  in  this  field  as 
the  poets  recked  :  their  almanacs  repeat  without  demur 
whatever  they  find  in  their  authorities,  works  of  a 
similar  kind,  but  compiled  for  use  in  the  most  different 
latitudes.     And  so  Columella,  to  take  a  single  instance, 
gives  three  distinct  dates  for  the  morning  rising  of 

*  Plin.   Nat.  Hist.   18.  22.      In  17.   128  this  usually  unscientific 
writer  shows  that  he  realizes  some  of  the  drawbacks  involved. 
«  See  3.  5.  I,  7.  2.  »  6.  5.  3,  4  and  7.  i. 


286    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Lyra,  two  of  wliich  are  as  wide  apart  as  15th  May  and 
3rd  November,  whilst  none  of  them  coincides  with  any 
rising  that  can  have  occurred  in  his  time  at  either 
Rome  or  Alexandria.^ 

It  is  only  in  accordance  with  Columella's  practical 
standpoint  that  his  vocabulary  should  abound  with 
words  that  are  rare,  or  not  found  at  all,  in  other 
literature,  2  though  doubtless  common  enough  in 
agricultural  parlance.  Some  striking  instances  occur 
in  the  passages  that  deal  with  the  duties  of  the  uilica  : 
Columella  emphasizes  the  fact  that  in  the  good  old  days 
these  were  discharged  by  the  farmer's  wife,^  and  it  may 
be  that  he  has  preserved  to  us  the  terminology  of  the 
recipe-books  of  some  notable  housewife.  Apart  from 
this  feature,  however,  his  style  is  the  refined  and 
graceful  style  of  Silver  Latiny,  without,  however,  any 
of  its  affectation  and  extravagance.  Fine  writing  there 
is  none,  save  for  the  outburst  in  which  he  develops 
the  aesthetic  aspect  of  the  practical  rule  requiring  that 
vines  should  be  arranged  according  to  their  kinds  : 

The  least  disposed  to  country  life,  should  he  come  into 
a  vineyard  thus  arranged  at  the  proper  season,  must  feel 
a  keen  satisfaction  in  appreciating  the  bountifulness  of 
Nature.  On  the  one  side  he  will  see  Bituric  vines  with 
their  wealth  of  fruit,  on  the  other  their  rivals  of  the  whiter 
kind  ;  here  Arcelacians,  and  there,  to  match  them,  Spionians 
or  Basilicans — so  that  it  seems  as  though  our  foster-mother 
Earth,  glad  at  the  coming  of  her  annual  task,  like  one  that 
is  never  done  with  child-bearing,  offers  to  man  her  drooping 
breasts  that  swell  with  the  new  wine.  And  the  young 
sprays,  by  grace  of  Bacchus,  alike  those  of  the  white  vine 
and  the  golden-red  and  that  which  hath  a  purple  sheen, 

1  II.  2.  40,  43,  84. 

*  So,  e.g.,  abnodare,  canter iatus,  decacuminare,  fenestella,  glocire, 
impcdatio,  pullnlus  (adj.),  scabratus,  semiuietus. 
pr.  8. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    287 

teem  with  juice,  so  that  everywhere  the  brimming  autumn 
is  a  blaze  of  many-hued  fruit. ^ 

I  As  a  specimen  of  his  ordinary  style  w'e  may  take  his 
instructions  for  discovering  a  swarm  of  bees,  without, 
however,  guaranteeing  the  efficiency  of  the  method 
prescribed.  You  must  first  watch  a  spring  in  some 
district  obviously  suited  to  their  activities  :  if  it  is 
visited  by  many  insects,  there  are  hopes  of  procuring  a 
swarm  : 

and  the  way  to  do  so  is  this.  Find  out  how  far  away 
they  are,  to  which  end  you  must  provide  ruddle  and 
smear  it  on  a  stick,  and  touch  therewith  the  back  of  every 
bee  that  sips.  Now  wait,  and  you  will  have  no  difBculty  in 
recognizing  any  that  come  a  second  time.  If  they  do  this 
soon,  be  sure  they  are  stationed  near  ;  otherwise,  you  must 
gauge  the  distance  by  the  time  they  take  in  getting  back.  .  .  . 
Those  you  find  travelling  farther  will  need  more  elaborate 
treatment.  A  piece  of  reed  is  cut  having  a  knot  at  each  end, 
a  hole  is  bored  in  the  side  of  it  and  a  little  honey  or  boiled 
wine  poured"  in  :  it  is  then  set  down  by  the  water.  After  a 
number  of  bees  have  crawled  inside,  attracted  by  the  smell 
of  the  sweet  fluid,  it  is  picked  up,  one,  and  one  only,  of  the 
occupants  allowed  to  escape,  and  the  aperture  closed  with  the 
thumb.  The  fugitive  serves  as  guide  to  the  searcher,  who 
follows  him  as  long  as  he  can,  and,  on  losing  sight  of  him, 
releases  another  bee.  Should  this  go  the  same  way,  he  keeps 
on  ;  if  not,  he  lets  bee  after  bee  escape,  observes  the  direction 
taken  by  the  majority,  and  follows  these  until  they  bring 
him  to  the  place  where  the  swann  is  concealed.  .  .  .  Should 
it  have  made  its  home  in  a  hollow  tree  .  .  .  then,  if  the 
tree  is  not  too  thick,  a  saw  is  taken  that  is  quite  sharp  (so 
t4iat  the  process  may  be  shorter),  and  first  the  upper  part, 
which  contains  no  bees,  and  then  as  much  of  the  rest  as 
they  have  occupied  is  cut  off,  the  section  is  wrapped  up  in  a 
clean  cloth  (a  point  of  vital  importance),  any  cracks  there 
may  be  are  sealed  up,  and  it  is  carried  off  to  the  place  where 
it  is  to  stand.2 

1  3.  21.  3.  *  9-  8.  8  sqq. 


288    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Columella  makes  frequent  and  happy  quotations 
from  the  Georgics,  and  writes  his  tenth  book  in  hexa- 
meters because  Virgil  has  broken  off  his  description 
of  the  old  Corycian's  garden  at  Tarentum  with  the^ 
suggestion  that  others  may  develop  this  theme. ^ 
But  our  author  is  no  poet,  and  this  book  no  Georgic. 
On  the  solitary  occasion  when  he  seems  about  to  soar 
a  little — on  wings  that  obviously  owe  much  to  Virgil — 
he  soon  tires,  fancies  he  hears  a  shocked  Muse  protest- 
ing and  reminding  him  of  the  '  cramped  circle  '  and 
'  thin  thread  '  in  which  he  is  wont  to  work,^  and 
descends.  In  particular,  the  dullness  and  monotony 
of  the  lists  of  flowers  and  plants  remind  one  of 
Tilburina's  catalogues  in  The  Critic. 

Columella  is  used  by  Pliny  ^  and  divers  agricultural 
and  veterinary  writers  of  the  fourth  century,*  Palladius 
often  simply  transcribes  him.  Cassiodorus  recommends 
him  to  his  monks  as  helpful  in  farm  and  garden,^ 
Isidore  knows  him,^  and  MSS.  seem  to  have  been  fairly 
common  in  Charlemagne's  time  :  Walafrid  Strabo, 
abbot  of  Reichenau,  borrows  from  Book  Ten  in  his 
own  horticultural  poem.'  Boccaccio  knows  and  cites 
Columella. 8  In  our  own  hterature,  Elyot  mentions 
him  as  an  authority  on  bee  repubhcs,  Milton  prescribes 
his  book  in  the  On  Education,  and  Cowley's  On  Garden- 
ing contains  several  allusions  to  it. 

*  See  his  remarks  in  the  preface  to  Book  Ten. 
2  See  11.  215-227. 

^  He  is  cited  nine  times  in  the  text,  and  appears  in  the  indices  of 
seven  books. 

*  Pelagonius  (who  often  cites  him),  Eumelus  (an  author  quoted  by 
Absyrtus  in  the  time  of  Constantine),  Vegetius,  De  Miilomedicina  4. 2. 

"  Inst.  Div.  Led.  28.  «  Orig.  17.  i.  i. 

'  See  Manitius,  Gesch.  der  lat.  Lit.  des  Mittelalters,  p.  309. 

*  Nolhac,  Petrarqiie  et  I'humanisme,  ii.  p.  100*. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    289 


3.  Geogil\phy 

Pomponius  Mela,  of  Tingentera  ^  in  Spain,  is  the 
author  of  a  geographical  work  entitled  De  Chorographia, 
written  upon  the  plan  which  ancient  geographers 
affected  and  to  which  the  work  of  Scylax,  the  earliest 
of  professedly  geographical  writers,  owes  its  name — 
that  of  the  Peri-plus  (coasting-voyage).  The  emperor 
whom  he  describes  as  '  opening  the  long-sealed  land  of 
Britain '  ^  must  be  Claudius,  and  he  doubtless  wrote 
somewhere  about  the  year  a.d.  44. 

After  some  general  remarks  upon  the  earth's  zones, 
seas,  and  continents,  we  start  ^  from  Gibraltar  along 
the  southern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  arrive  by 
way  of  Syria  and  Asia  Minor  at  the  Dardanelles,* 
passing  through  which  we  follow  the  starboard  coast 
round  to  the  Don  and  ascend  it  until  stopped  b}'  the 
imaginary  range  of  the  Rhipaean  Mountains.^  In 
Book  Two  we  come  back  to  the  mouth  of  the  Don, 
turn  west,  and  regain  our  starting-point.^  A  catalogue 
of  the  islands  of  all  the  seas  so  far  traversed  concludes 
the  book.  In  the  next  we  sail  out  into  Ocean,  and, 
again  keeping  the  land  to  starboard,  cruise  past  Spain, 
Gaul,  Germany,  and  Sarmatia.  At  the  Caspian  Sea,  to 
Mela,  as  to  most  writers  since  Alexander's  time,  an 
inlet  of  Ocean,  we  pause  to  review  the  islands  of  the 
section,'  and  then  sail  on  past  Scythians  and  Seres  to 

^  Mel.  2.  96  unde  nos  sumus,  Tingentera. 

*  3.    49.    tarn   diu   clausam    [Britanniam)    aperit   ecce   puincipum 
maximus. 

•  I.  24.  25.  *  I.  96.  *  I.  117.  •  2.  96. 

'  The  Caspian  is  reached  at  §  38,  but  several  sections  are  then 
devoted  to  a  description  of  the  Araxes  and  the  Hyrcanian  tiger,  and 
to  the  story  of  certain  Indians  whom  a  storm  drove  along  the  waters 
of  the  Northern  Ocean  to  the  coast  of  Germany.  The  islands  begin 
at  §  46  and  the  voyage  is  resumed  at  §  59. 
T 


290    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

India  and  the  Rea  Sea,  and  so  along  the  southern  shores 
of  a  much  abbreviated  Africa  back  to  Gibraltar.  In 
this  section  the  islands  are  noticed  as  they  would 
naturally  meet  the  traveller's  eyes. 

Mela's  opening  remark  as  to  the  difficulty  of  giving 
his  subject  literary  treatment  is  mere  affectation.^  He 
is  a  rhetorician,  and  intends  to  write  a  rhetorical 
geography,  and  he  possesses  all  the  qualities  which 
are  required  for  the  successful  execution  of  his  plan. 
His  narrative  runs  smoothly  and  rapidly  along,  pausing 
only  to  dwell  on  some  piquant  custom,  picturesque 
scene,  or  ancient  relic,  content  otherwise  to  make  each 
name  as  it  comes  lemma  for  a  brief  note  that  will 
pleasantly  stimulate  our  recollection  of  history  or 
mythology,  or,  conversely,  by  sheer  vigour  or  neatness 
imprint  some  fact  upon  our  memories.  A  very 
representative  extract  is  the  following  : 

Next  comes  Ionia,  indented  by  several  windings  of  the 
coast.  It  makes  its  first  bend  at  the  promontory  of 
Posideum,  embracing  in  it  the  oracle  of  Apollo  (Branchides, 
of  yore,  but  now  Didymean),  Miletus,  once  chief  city  of  all 
Ionia  in  the  sciences  of  peace  and  war,  birthplace  of  the 
astronomer  Thales,  Timotheus  the  musician,  and  Anaxi- 
mander  the  philosopher,  and  other  citizens  whose  glorious 
intellects  give  her  just  claim  to  glory  {say  what  they  will 
against  Ionia),  the  city  of  Hippis,the  mouth  of  the  Maeander, 
and  Mount  Latmos,  noted  for  the  legend  of  the  moon's 
passion  for  Endjmiion.^ 

The  words  italicized  illustrate  Mela's  use  of  word- 
play :  all  the  rhetorical  tricks  will  be  found  within  the 
space  of  a  few  pages  of  his  book.  Neat  transitions, 
such  as  abound  in  Ovid's  Metamorphoses,  were  much 

^  I.  I  impedtium  opus  et  facundiae  minime  capax  :  constat  enim 
fere  gentium  locorumque  nominibus,  etc, 
»  I.  86. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    291 

admired  in  the  schools,  and  he  was  doubtless  very 
proud  of  the  one  by  which  he  passes  from  the  tour  of 
the  Mediterranean  to  the  consideration  of  its  islands  : 
'  As  we  leave  the  straits  there  faces  us  the  island  of 
Gades,  suggesting  the  enumeration  of  the  others.'  ^ 
Lucan  must  have  admired  the  exaggeration  of  an 
account  that  makes  Ireland  so  emerald  that  its  cattle 
burst  if  left  too  long  grazing. ^  Fairly  numerous  echoes 
of  Sallust  ^  suggest  that  Mela  regarded  him  as  his 
literary  model.  Mela's  style  then  leaves  nothing  to  be 
desired  from  the  point  of  view  of  his  century.  To  its 
geographical  knowledge,  moderate  though  it  certainly 
was,  he  has  done  but  scant  justice.  The  point  is  not 
one  which  can  be  developed  here,  but  it  may  be  noted 
that  he  makes  the  Danube  flow  into  the  Adriatic  * 
and  Germany  extend  to  the  Alps,^  ignores  the  division 
of  Mauretania  into  two  provinces,®  and  repeats  the 
wildest  stories  of  Herodotus  and  others  in  regard  to 
Scythia,  India,  and  Aethiopia.'  However,  he  has  paid 
some  attention  to  his  own  country  and  the  adjacent 
Gaul,  has  a  good  idea  of  the  sweep  of  the  latter's  coast 
that  culminates  at  Ushant,^  and  mentions,  alone  among 
ancient  writers,  the  Isle  of  Sena  {Seiti  off  Finisterre).^ 
He  knows  something  indeed  of  waters  yet  further  north, 
1  2.  97. 

*  3-  53  (idso  hixuYiosa  herbis  .  .  .  tit  se  exigua  parte  diet  pecova 
imf>leant,  et  nisi  pabulo  prohibeantur  diutius  pasta  dissiliant. 

•'  So,  e.g.,  2.  92  Saguntum  fide  atque  aernmnis  inchita  =  ?>a\\.  Hist. 
2.  21  D.  Saguntini  fide  atque  aerumnis  incluti :  see  further  Frick's 
edition,  pp.  v,  vi. 

*  2.  57.  5  3.  25. 

*  Though  he  has  occasion  to  deal  with  the  district  in  two  parts  of 
his  book  (i.  25,  3.  105).     The  division  was  effected  in  a.d.  42  (Dio 

50.  9)- 

'  2.  9  sqq.  ;    3.  61  sqq.,  85  sqq. 

'  3.  16  ora  primo  nihil  progressa  in  altum  mox  tantumdem  paene  in 
pelagus  excedens  quantum  retro  Hispania  abscesserat,  Cantabricis  fit 
aduersa  terris  et  grandi  circuitu  adflexa  ad  occidentem  litiis  aduertit. 

'  3-  48- 


292    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

being  the  first  to  name  the  Orkneys  ^  {Or cades),  whilst 
his  island-studded  Codanian  Bay,  beyond  the  Elbe,  is 
clearly  the  Baltic,  and  its  largest  island,  Codanovia, 
the  southern  promontory  of  Sweden. ^  There  is  a 
redeeming  point  even  about  his  misconception  of  the 
Caspian  ;  at  least  his  long,  narrow,  river-like  entrance  ^ 
impUes  some  advance  towards  the  knowledge  of  the 
Volga  which  is  first  definite  in  Ptolemy.  Whence  all 
this  special  lore  has  come  is  a  matter  of  guess-work  : 
the  theory  of  a  single  source  is  not  so  impossible  for  a 
writer  of  Mela's  type  as  it  is  for  a  Petronius  or  a  Tacitus. 
Directly  or  indirectly,  Varro  seems  to  have  had  con- 
siderable influence  upon  his  work. 

Mela  was  one  of  the  elder  Pliny's  authorities,*  and 
was  used  in  the  third  century  (without  acknowledg- 
ment) by  Solinus,^  in  the  ninth  by  the  anonymous 
author  of  the  geographical  work  generally  known  as  the 
De  Situ  Orbis.^  His  book  is  not  one  of  the  stock 
possessions  of  the  Middle  Ages,  though  Pastrengo 
knows  it  in  the  fourteenth  century  and  Petrarch  cites  it 
fairly  often.  It  is  one  of  the  manuals  recommended  to 
Harthb  by  Milton,  and  even  in  Johnson's  time  enjoyed 
credit  enough  for  the  dictator  to  carry  it  with  him  on  a 
coach  drive  to  Harwich.  The  suggestion  hazarded  by 
a  friend  of  Goethe's  that  it  was  the  work  of  Boccaccio  ' 
was,  of  course,  absurd  :  the  book  is  as  clearly  Silver  as 
the  Rape  of  the  Lock  is  Queen  Anne. 

1  3.  54.  *  3-  31  and  54. 

8  3.  38  mare  Caspium  ut  angusto  ita  longo  etiam  freto  primum  terras 
quasi  fluuius  inrumpit. 

*  He  is  named  in  the  indices  to  Books  3-6,  8,  12,  13,  21,  22,  but 
never  cited  in  the  text. 

^  See  Mommsen's  edition,  p.  249. 

«  Manitius,  Gesch.  der  lat.  Lit.  des  Mittelalters,  p.  675. 

'  Hortis,  La  Corografia  di  Pomponio  Mela,  etc.  in'Archeografo 
Triestino,  1879. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    293 

Seneca  the  philosopher  wrote  an  account  of  India 
and  described  the  geography  and  religious  customs  of 
Egypt.  The  former  work  was  used  by  Pliny  for  the 
corresponding  sections  of  his  sixth  book/  and  Servius 
mentions  both  :  ^  neither,  however,  has  reached  us. 

Gaius  Licinius  Mucianus,  who  helped  Vespasian  to 
attain  the  purple,  is  often  cited  by  Pliny  for  notabilia, 
chiefly  of  geographical  import.  He  had  seen  much  of 
the  East :  perhaps  he  published  a  journal  of  his  travels. 
The  fragments  suggest  a  work  as  unscientific  as  Mela's. 
In  a  Lycian  temple  Mucianus  saw  a  letter  written 
home  from  the  front  by  Homer's  Sarpedon ;  at  Rhodes 
he  touched  a  cuirass  that  had  belonged  to  Amasis,  and 
was  by  this  time  reduced,  under  the  hands  of  inquisitive 
generations,to  the  merest  rags — after  which  his  assertion 
that  the  Pomptine  marshes  covered  the  site  of  twenty- 
four  ancient  cities,  leaves  the  imagination  of  his  readers 
cold.^ 

PHny  himself,  after  considering  in  the  second  book 
of  his  Natural  History  a  number  of  matters  of  geo- 
graphical interest,  supplies  us  in  the  next  four  books 
with  a  detailed  treatment  of  the  various  countries, 
following,  like  Mela,  the  Periplus  principle,  and  starting, 
like  him,  from  Gibraltar,  but  taking  more  cognizance 
of  the  inland  regions.  Reaching  the  Rhipaeans  *  by 
the  left-hand  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  the  other 
inland  seas,  he  passes  over  them  into  the  ocean  and  so 
coasts  back  westward  to  his  starting-point.  All  this 
has  taken  two  books  :  in  the  others  we  follow  the  right- 
hand  route  of  Mela's  first  book,  cross  the  Rhipaeans 
again, °  turn  this  time  eastward,  and  follow  the  Ocean 

1  Pliny  cites  Seneca  at  §  60  and  names  him  in  the  index. 

*  On  Aen.  9.  30,  6.  154. 

»  Kal.  Hist.  13.  88,  19.  12,  3.  59.  *  4.  94-  *  6.  33. 


294   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

coast  back  to  Gibraltar.  Pliny  takes  the  islands  in 
groups,  but  his  groups  come  more  frequently  than 
Mela's,  those  of  Southern  Europe,  for  instance,  being 
four  in  number.^  His  account  of  Europe  is,  for  the  most 
part,  uninteresting  and  unintelligent :  perhaps  no  part 
of  the  Natural  History  shows  more  clearly  the  defects 
of  which  I  shall  speak  more  fully  in  the  next  section. 
The  mention  of  Scandinavia  (the  largest  island  of  the 
Codanian  Bay,  and  reckoned  by  the  natives  as  worthy 
to  rank  as  '  another  continent '),  of  thirt}^  Haebudes, 
of  Mona  and  Monapia  (whereas  Caesar's  Mona  seems  to 
do  duty  for  both  Anglesey  and  Man),  of  Vectis  (situate, 
however,  between  England  and  Ireland)  ^ — a  few  points 
of  enlightenment  like  these  cannot  blind  us  to  the  fact 
that  the  accounts  of  Germany  and  Britain,  one  the 
scene  of  long  wars  of  which  he  himself  had  written  a 
history,  the  other  certainly  no  longer  an  ultima  Thule, 
are  desperately  meagre,  Asia  and  Africa  fare  better. 
The  Tigris  and  Euphrates  are  fully  described,^  a 
greatly  advanced  knowledge  of  India  is  displayed,*  and 
valuable  information  is  given  as  to  the  discoveries  by 
which  successive  navigators  had  made  the  voyage  to 
that  country  safer  and  shorter.^  For  the  other 
continent  our  author  has  been  able  to  draw  on  the 
geographical  writings  of  the  scholarly  prince  Juba  of 
Mauretania,^  and  his  accounts  of  the  expeditions  of 
Cornelius  Balbus  against  the  Garamantes '  and  of 
Suetonius  Paulinus  across  Mount  Atlas  are  attractive.® 


»  3-  76  m-  ;    151,  152  ;    4-  52  sqq.  ;    92,  93. 

*  4-  96,  103- 

'  5-  83  sqq.,  6.  127  sqq. 

*  6.  56  sqq.  5  6.  96-106. 

*  See  especially  his  accounts  of  the  Nile  (5.   51  5^^.)  and  the 
Fortunate  Isles  (6.  203-205). 

'  5.  36  sqq.  8  5.  14  and  15. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    295 

But  of  Africa's  great  southward  sweep  he  has  no 
suspicion. 1 

Pliny's  geographical  books  form  the  basis  of  Solinus' 
notorious  compilation  of  marvels,  and  furnished  men 
like  Bede  and  Paulus  Diaconus  ^  with  much  of  the 
cognate  information  which  they  introduce  into  their 
historical  works.  A  little  treatise  on  geography 
written  about  a.d.  825  by  the  Irish  monk  Dicuil  draws 
mainly  upon  this  source. ^ 

A  real  advance,  from  both  literary  and  scientific 
points  of  view,  is  manifested  by  the  Germania  of 
Tacitus.  If  it  was  the  geographical  excursus  of  Sallust 
that  inspired  the  chapters  upon  Britain  which  this 
writer  inserted  into  his  Agricola,  these  in  their  turn  may 
well  have  suggested  to  him  the  composition  of  a  purely 
geographical  treatise.  Once  he  had  decided  to  confine 
himself  to  a  particular  country,  he  cannot  have  taken 
long  to  decide  which  that  country  should  be.  The 
German  cloud  in  Rome's  political  sky  was  by  his  time 
considerably  larger  than  a  man's  hand.  In  Nero's 
days  only  the  eye  of  a  statesman  like  Seneca  could 
discern  it.*  Then,  at  Nero's  death,  had  come  the 
great  mutiny  of  German  auxiliaries  that  had  left 
humiliating  stains  on  the  honour  of  the  legions.^ 
Twenty  years  later  nothing  but  the  sudden  break-up  of 
the  river  ice  had  prevented  a  German  contingent  from 
taking  part  in  the  rebelhon  of  Saturninus.^    And  now, 

^  Accepting  without  comment  (6.  175)  Juba's  statement  that  the 
Atlantic  begins  at  the  promuntorium  Mossylicum,  some  way  short 
of  Guarclafui ! 

*  Manitius,  I.e.,  pp.  77  sqq.,  26Q. 

^  Bunbury,  Hist,  of  Ancient  Geography,  ii.  701.  My  debt  to  Mr. 
Bunbury  in  this  section  is  very  great. 

*  De  Ira  i.  11.  3  sqq.,  esp.  §  4  ageduni,  illis  corporibus  illis  animis 
delicias,  luxiim,  opes  ignorantibiis  da  rationem,  da  disciplinam  : 
ut  nil  amplius  dicam,  nccesse  erit  certc  nobis  mores  Romanos  repetere. 

*  Tac.  Hist.  4.  12  sqq.  '  Suet.  Dom.  6. 


296    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

as  Tacitus  completed  his  Agricola,  the  new  emperor  was 
detained  on  the  Rhine,  loth  to  miss  the  opportunities 
offered  by  the  civil  strife  with  which  this  dangerous 
enemy  was  at  present  troubled.^  To  suppose  that 
because  Tacitus,  without  entirely  ignoring  the  weak- 
nesses of  the  German  character,^  does  unmistakably 
emphasize  the  contrast  between  the  simple  virtues  of  a 
savage  people  and  the  civilized  corruptions  of  con- 
temporary Rome — to  suppose  on  this  account  that  he 
was  strongly  influenced  by  the  desire  to  improve  the 
morals  of  his  countrymen  would  be  to  misunderstand 
the  conditions  under  which  he  was  writing.  The 
belief  in  the  survival  of  golden-age  innocence  in  remote 
regions  of  the  earth  to  which  luxury  and  refinement 
have  not  yet  penetrated  is  as  old  as  Homer  and  Pindar, 
Rhetorical  history  and  Cynic  diatribe  in  due  course 
identified  the  Abii  and  Hyperboreans  of  these  writers 
with  the  Scythians,  whose  spokesman,  Anacharsis, 
criticizes  Greek  culture  so  frankly  in  Lucian's  enter- 
taining satire,  the  prototype  of  the  Lettres  Persanes 
and  the  Citizen  of  the  World.  And  this  Utopian 
tendency  seems  by  the  time  with  which  this  book  is 
concerned  to  have  become  a  convention  of  geographical 
description  that  had  any  literary  ambition  at  all.  Mela, 
Curtius,  and  Pliny  are  full  of  it.^  No  doubt  Tacitus 
could  have  as  easily  dispensed  with  the  use  of  epigram 
and  point  as  with  his  thrusts  at  the  passion  for  silver 
plate,  the  practice  of  the  arts  of  seduction,  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  rich  and  childless  man. 

The  MSS.  do  not  agree  as  regards  the  title  of  our 
work.     The  fullest  form  of  it   reads   On  the  Origin, 

^  Bury,  History  of  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  418. 

»  See  II.  3,  15.  I,  22.  2,  23.  2. 

'  Cp.  J.  H.  Sleeman's  edition  of  the  Germania,  Intr.  p.  xxvii. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    297 

Geography,  Institutions,  and  Tribes  of  the  Germans,  but 
important  MSS.  are  content  with  the  first  and  second, 
or  the  first  and  third,  of  these  four  items.  The  book 
falls  into  two  parts,  of  which  the  first  is  of  a  general 
character,  dealing  in  twenty-eight  chapters  with 
geographical  features,  origins,  and  institutions  (pubhc 
and  private).  Then  in  eighteen  chapters,  Tacitus 
enumerates  the  various  tribes,  mentioning  any  notable 
characteristic  they  exhibit  or  some  point  of  interest 
connected  with  them — the  intelHgence  of  the  Chatti,^ 
the  righteousness  of  the  Chauci,^  the  pacifism  which 
has  proved  the  ruin  of  the  Cherusci  (for,  he  notes. 

When  you  live  amidst  the  lawless  and  the  strong,  it  is 
vanity  to  think  of  peace  ;  where  might  decides,  moderation 
and  goodness  are  words  reserved  for  the  parties  that  are 
most  powerful.  The  Cherusci  used  to  be  called  just  and 
virtuous,  but  nowadays  they  are  called  foolish  and  feeble, 
whUst  to  their  victors,  the  Chatti,  good  fortune  is  accounted 
for  statesmanship  ^), 

the  worship  of  Nerthus,  whom  our  author  identifies 
with  Mother  Earth,  by  the  Angh,*  the  Scandinavian 
boats,  built  to  row  either  way  with  equal  ease.^  We 
start  with  the  peoples  lying  on  or  about  the  Rhine, 
proceeding  thence  along  the  northern  coast  (with  a 
detour  inland  to  the  Cherusci)  as  far  as  the  Cimbri  of 
Jutland.  After  a  digression  on  the  trouble  which  this 
I  tribe  at  the  outset  and  afterwards  the  Germans  as  a 
whole  have  given  to  the  Romans,^  we  are  introduced 
to  the  great  Suebian  race  with  its  numerous  tribes.' 
After  naming  several  of  these,  with  hardly  a  hint  as  to 
the  position  they  occupy,  Tacitus  undertakes  to  follow 
the  line  of  the  Danube, ^  along  which  he  moves  from 

»  30.  2.  *  3-5.  2,  3.  *  36.  I,  2.  <  40.  2. 

»  44.  2.  «  Chap.  37.  '  38.  I.  *  41-  I- 


298    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

west  to  east  until  he  reaches  a  point  not  very  far 
distant  from  the  great  bend  above  Budapest.  '  Such,' 
he  observes,  '  one  may  say  is  Germany's  frontier  so 
far  as  the  Danube  is  one  of  its  boundaries,'  ^  and  goes 
on  to  speak  of  tribes  that  he  '  behind  '  those  just 
mentioned,  inhabiting  mainly  defiles  and  ridges  of  a 
continuous  range  by  which  Suebia  is  divided  into  two 
parts,  the  Riesengebirge  of  to-day. ^  Beyond  this  again 
lie  many  peoples,  among  them  the  Gotones,  or  later 
Goths.3  '  On  the  Ocean  itself '  are  the  Suiones,*  whose 
name  is  probably  involved  in  that  of  Sweden,  and 
beyond  whom  lies  '  another  sea,  sluggish  and  almost  { 
waveless,'  ^  the  sea  which  he  has  described  in  the 
Agricola  as  extending  between  Britain  and  the  Shet- 
lands,  and  for  which  Pytheas  of  Marseilles  seems 
to  have  been  the  main  authority,  claiming,  indeed, 
whatever  else  he  reported  only  from  hearsay,  to  have 
seen  this  with  his  own  eyes,  a  substance  that  was 
neither  land,  nor  water,  nor  air,  but  a  medley  of  all 
three,  which  he  hkens  to  the  '  sea-lung,'  a  mollusc  of  the  . 
jelly-fish  order.  And  with  this  sea  Tacitus  thinks  we 
may  well  believe  earth  to  end,  since 

here  the  last  gleams  of  the  setting  sun  linger  on  until  dawn, 
with  such  brilliance  that  the  stars  are  dimmed,  and  indeed 
popular  belief  has  it  that  the  sound  of  his  issuing  forth  can 
be  heard,  the  outlines  of  his  steeds  and  his  halo  of  rays  seen.' 

He  turns  off  along  the  coast  of  the  Suevic  Sea  or 
Baltic,  and  gives  us  an  account  of  the  amber  that  is 
gathered  there,  an  account  that  illustrates  well  the 
way  in  which  geography  and  cynic  satire  are  blended 
in  his  pages  : 

^  42.   I  eaqiie  Germaniae  ueliit  frons  est,  qiiatenus  Danituio  prae- 
cingitur. 

*  43-  1-3-  '  44-  I-  *  44-  2. 

*  45.  1  pigrum  ac  propc  itnmoiu)ii.  *  45.  i- 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    299 

They  also  ransack  the  sea,  the  only  people  in  the  world 
to  gather  amber,  or  glesum  as  they  call  it,  finding  it  in 
shallow  water  or  on  the  beach  itself.  What  it  is,  or  what 
the  cause  producing  it,  this  these  barbarians  have  never 
learned  or  tried  to  learn  :  for  long,  indeed,  it  lay  unheeded 
along  with  the  other  refuse  that  the  sea  casts  up,  till  our 
daintiness  brought  it  renown.  They  themselves  make  no 
use  of  it :  they  take  it  as  they  find  it  and  sell  the  shapeless 
mass,  marvelhng  to  get  money  for  it.  One  can,  however, 
see  that  it  is  the  sap  of  trees  :  it  often  contains  creeping, 
even  winged,  things  that  have  got  caught  in  it  when  it  was 
fluid,  and  then,  as  it  hardened,  been  imprisoned.  I  suppose 
that  just  as  the  remote  regions  of  the  East  have  those  more 
fertile  groves  and  woods  that  distil  frankincense  and  balm, 
so  in  the  isles  and  mainland  of  the  West  there  are  substances 
on  which  the  rays  of  the  sun,  here  not  remote,  so  act  that 
they  become  liquid  and  flow  into  the  adjacent  sea,  washing 
up  under  stress  of  storms  upon  the  opposite  shore.  If  you 
try  the  experiment  of  setting  a  light  to  it,  it  flares  up  like 
a  torch,  producing  an  oily,  fragrant  flame  and  then  turning 
soft  and  pliable  as  pitch  or  resin. ^ 

Another  Suebian  tribe  is  mentioned,  and  then  a  last 
chapter  describes  three  peoples  whom  Tacitus  regards 
as  perhaps  Sarmatian  rather  than  German  ;  one  of 
them  is  the  Fenni  or  Finns. ^  The  work  concludes  with 
the  refusal  to  speak  of  lands  remoter  still,  the  domain 
of  the  unknown  and  fabulous.^ 

Tacitus  nowhere  imphes  that  he  has  seen  Germany, 
and  the  only  authority  he  cites  (this  but  once)  is  Caesar.* 
Livy  in  his  hundred  and  fourth  book  prefaced  his 
narrative  of  the  war  with  Ariovistus  by  an  account  of 
the  '  geography  and  institutions '  of  Germany,^  which 
is  not  likely  to  have  been  entirely  ignored  by  his 
successor.  In  view  of  the  latter's  admiration  for  Sallust 
one  might  suspect  him  of  having  drawn  on  that  author's 

»  45.  4-8.  2  ^(3.  I.  »  46.  6.  *  28.  I. 

*  Ferioch.  104  prima  pars  hbri  situm  Germaniae  moresque  ccnlinet. 


300   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

favourite  model  Posidonius,  but  Strabo's  account  of 
the  country  makes  it  almost  certain  that  the  famous 
philosopher-geographer's   knowledge    of   it   was    very 
meagre.     No  doubt  Tacitus  gleaned  something  from 
Roman  officers  who  had  served  on  the  Rhine  :  Germans 
themselves,  too,  were  not  infrequent  visitors  to  Rome. 
Of  the  early  fortunes  of  the  Germania  something 
was  said  in  Chapter  vii.     Enoch's  MS.  seems  to  have 
come  eventually  into  the  hands  of  Aeneas  Silvius,  who 
was  afterwards  Pope  Pius  ii.  and  used  the  work  in  his 
writings.     As  it  had  been  discovered  in  a  German 
convent,  so  it  was  at  Nuremberg  that  the  iirst  separate 
edition  appeared,  in  1473,  and  to  German  humanists 
that    it    most    appealed.      Celtis   lectured   upon   it ; 
Aventinus,  the  historian  of  Bavaria,  based  on  one  of  its 
sentences  a  theory  of  '  lays  of  ancient  Germany  '  which 
he  developed  with  an  enthusiasm  surprising  in  one  who 
despised  the  epics  of  the  Minnesanger ;   the  Alsatian 
Rhenanus,    the   first   of   our   author's   great   editors, 
initiated  the  critical  study  of  the  picture  of  old  German 
civilization  which  it  presents.     The  days  are  far  away 
when  men  could  speak  of  it  in  Gibbon's  words  as  the 
result  of  '  accurate  observation  and  diligent  inquiries,' 
but  between  this  point  of  view  and  Mommsen's  con- 
tempt the  middle  way  may  bring  us  near  the  truth. 

4,  The  Encyclopaedia  of  Pliny 

Gaius  Plinius  Secundus,  born  at  Comum,  a.d.  23/24,^ 
in  an  equestrian  family, ^  served  as  an  ofiicer  in  Ger- 

^  The  MSS.  preserve  some  mutilated  remains  of  the  biography 
which  stood  in  the  De  Viris  Illustribus  of  Suetonius.  That  his  death 
(Aug.  24,  A.D.  79)  occurred  in  his  fifty-sixth  year  we  learn  from  his 
nephew  {Ep.  3.  5.  7). 

^  This  appears  from  the  character  of  the  appointments  which  he 
held. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    301 

many,^  held  important  financial  posts  in  the  provinces, 
and  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Vespasian. ^  When  the 
eruption  of  Vesuvius  took  place  in  a.d.  79,  he  was 
admiral  of  the  fleet  stationed  in  the  Bay  of  Naples,  and 
landed  at  Stabiae  to  observe  the  phenomenon,  but 
died  on  the  second  day,  suffocated,  it  would  seem,  by 
the  clouds  of  vapour  and  sand.^  Of  his  biographical, 
rhetorical,  grammatical,  and  historical  output  I  have 
already  spoken,  and  turn  now  to  his  ^  last  work,  the 
Natural  History. 

The  preface,  addressed  to  Prince  Titus  in  a.d.  77,^ 
boasts  of  the  '  twenty  thousand  things  worth  knowing  '  ^ 
which  the  book  contains,  the  fruits,  no  doubt,  of  the 
hundred  and  sixty  note-books,  full  of  microscopic 
writing,  which  his  nephew  assures  us  PHny  left  behind 
him  at  his  death.'  Book  One  consists  only  of  the 
indices  for  the  succeeding  books.  Book  Two  takes  a 
physical  survey  of  the  Universe,  Books  Three  to  Six 
handle  Geography,  Book  Seven  Anthropology  and 
Physiology,  Books  Eight  to  Eleven  Zoology,  Books 
Twelve  to  Nineteen  Botany.^  Then  thirteen  books 
are  concerned  with  the  medicinal  uses  of  plants  and 
animals,^  though  the  description  of  garden  flowers  and 
herbs  that  occupies  half  Book  Twenty-One  is  purely 
botanical .   Books  Thirty-Three  to  Thirty-Seven  describe 

1  PUn.  Ep.  3.  5.  4.  *  Lc.  §  9. 

'  The  whole  occunence  is  described  in  detail  by  Pliny  the  younger, 
Ep.  6.  16. 

*  It  comes  last  in  his  nephew's  list,  Ep.  3.  5.  6. 

6  §  3  triumphalis  et  censonus  tu  [Titus)  sexiensque  consul 
(  =  A.D.  77). 

«  §  17  (quoted  on  p.  303). 

'  Ep.  3.  5.  17  electorum  commentarios  centum  sexaginta,  optstho- 
graphos  quidem  et  minutissinie  scriptos. 

*  Books  Seventeen  to  Nineteen  are  concerned  with  Agriculture. 

"  Plants  in  Books  Twenty  to  Twenty-Seven,  animals  in  Books 
Twenty-Eight  to  Thirty-Two. 


302    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

metals,  minerals,  stones  and  gems,  the  medicinal  lore 
here  following  immediately  upon  the  account  given  of 
each  detail. 

Such  a  summary  as  this  can  give  no  adequate  con- 
ception of  a  work  which  Gibbon  aptly  describes  as 
'  that  immense  register  where  PHny  has  deposited  the 
discoveries,  the  arts,  and  the  errors  of  mankind.'  i 
Under  the  headings  Bronze,  Earth,  Stone  we  run  across 
histories  of  sculpture  and  painting ;  ^  Gold  leads  to  a 
long  account  of  the  status  and  privilege  of  the  equestrian 
order  of  nobihty,  which  wore  gold  rings  ;  ^  Chalk, 
being  used  to  whiten  the  feet  of  slaves  in  the  auction 
room,  suggests  an  excursus  on  the  influence  of  freed- 
men.*  This  discursiveness  is  the  secret  at  once  of 
Pliny's  failure  as  a  scientist  and  his  charm  as  a  mere 
writer.  Book  Ten  is  about  birds,  but  contains  a  dis- 
sertation on  propagation  in  general,  started  by  the 
reflection  that  serpents,  as  well  as  birds,  lay  eggs.^ 
In  Book  Twelve,  on  foreign  trees,  Herodotus  is  cited  as 
witness  for  a  tribute  of  ebony  paid  by  the  Ethiopians 
to  Persia.  But  our  author,  observing  that  Herodotus 
says  that  they  sent  gold  and  ivory  as  well,  proceeds  to 
take  the  bit  in  his  teeth  : 

Yes,  twenty  large  elephant's  tusks  he  says  they  paid. 
That  shows  how  much  they  valued  ivory  in  the  three 
hundred  and  tenth  year  of  the  city,  for  it  was  then  that  the 
historian  wrote  at  Thurii,  which  makes  it  all  the  stranger 
that  we  believe  him  when  he  assures  us  that  he  had  never 
met  any  one  who  had  seen  the  Po,^ 

And  we    flounder   on   as  best  we  can,  until  the  re- 
appearance of  the  word  ebony  '  warns  us  that  our 

1  Decline  and  Fall,  chap.  13. 

2  Plastic  art  is  handled  in  34.  37-93,  35.  151-157,  36.  9-43,  painting 
in  35.  15-150. 

^  33-  29-36.  «  35.  199-201.  »  §§  169,  170  sqq. 

•L.c.  §§  17,  18.  7§%5,. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    303 

travels  are  over  for  the  time  being.     For  scientific 
classification,     a    matter    in     which     Aristotle    and 
Theophrastus  had  done  something,  an  author  Uke  this 
naturally  cares  little.     His  list  of  birds  starts  with  the 
largest.      Presently  we  are  introduced  to  Aristotle's 
division  into  birds  with  curved  talons,  birds  with  toes, 
birds  with  webbed  feet.^    This  lasts  some  time,  though 
we  are  never  told  to  which  of  the  new  categories  the 
big  birds  with  which  we  began  belong.     And  of  web- 
footed  ones  only  the  halcyons  get  mention,  for  the 
consideration  of  their  famous  nests  ^  sets  Phny  thinking 
first  of  nests  in  general,  then  of  the  various  powers  of 
winged  creatures  in  general,  and  he  begins  to  catalogue 
by  the  corresponding  heads  of  conjugal  fidelity,  power 
of  flight,  and  so  on.^    The  fact  is,  our  author  read  too 
much,  in  his  carriage  and  over  his  meals,  note-book  in 
hand,    making   memoranda   all   the   time.*     He   says 
himself  that  his  encyclopaedia  is  the  outcome  of  some 
two  thousand  books,  and  although  he  implies  that  in 
the  main  he  has  relied  on  a  hundred  '  select  authors,'  ° 
over  four  hundred  names  figure  in  the  source  lists  which 
he  appends  to  the  index  of  each  book.     That  many  of 
these  writers  were  known   to  him  only,   or  chielly, 
through  quotations  in  his  main  sources  is  fairly  certain. 
One  very  damning  piece  of  evidence  may  be  mentioned 
here.     Ordinarily  speaking,  he  contents  himself  with 
the  simple  name  of  his  authority,  but  in  a  passage  of 

1  Cp.  10.  §§  I  and  29.  '■  §  90. 

*  It  is  interesting  to  observe  the  gradual  transition  in  §§  99-104. 

*  Plin.  Ep.  3.  5.  II  super  hanc  [cenam)  liber  legebatur,  adnotabatur, 
15  in  itinere  quasi  solutus  ceteris  curis,  huic  uni  {  =  studiis)  uacabat :  ad 
latus  notarius  cum  libro  et  pugillaribits  .  .  .  qua  ex  causa  Romae 
quoque  sella  uehebaUir. 

*  Nat.  Hist.  pr.  17  uiginti  milia  rerum  dignaritm  cura  .  .  . 
lectione  uoluminum  circiter  dimni  milium  .  .  .  ex  exquisilis  auctoribus 
centum  inclusimus  triginta  sex  uoluminibus. 


304    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Book  Thirteen  ^  he  suddenly  begins  to  specify  not  only 
the  particular  work,  but  even  the  particular  book  of 
the  work,  from  which  he  is  quoting  :  '  Cassius  Hemina 
in  Book  Four  of  his  Annals  .  .  .  Piso  in  the  first  book 
of  his  Commentaries,'  and  so  on,  giving  us  in  the  space 
of  some  twenty-four  Unes  five  or  six  of  these  full 
references,  and  thereafter  no  more.  Obviously  he  has 
been  using  a  source  in  which  the  quotations  were 
regularly  made  in  this  form,  and  has  for  once  omitted 
to  adjust  those  which  he  was  borrowing  to  his  own 
method.  Of  course  this  theory  of  knowledge  only  by 
second-hand  quotation  may  be  carried  too  far.  We  do 
not,  for  instance,  need  its  help  in  order  to  explain  the 
fact  that  some  of  PUny's  statements  as  to  the  views  of 
men  whose  works  have  reached  us  are  demonstrably 
inaccurate.  Columella  he  must  surely  have  actually 
read,  yet  he  ascribes  to  him  an  invention  for  which 
that  author  himself  distinctly  gives  the  credit  to  an 
Egyptian  writer. ^  The  explanation  in  this  and  many 
other  cases  is  surely  to  be  looked  for  rather  in  that 
weakness  of  the  human  intellect  which  makes  it  so 
difficult  to  achieve  absolute  accuracy  in  an  article  that 
is  the  product  of  a  number  of  scattered  notes. 

The  younger  Phny  tells  us  ^  that  his  uncle  maintained 
that  no  book  was  so  bad  but  that  some  part  of  it  was 
useful,  and  the  Natural  History  convicts  him  of  having 
been  devoid  of  all  critical  insight.  He  says  once,  a 
propos  of  some  statements  which  he  admits  to  be 
unreliable,  '  they  have  been  put  forth  in  the  past,  and 
so  I  must  put  them  forth  now,'  *  and  these  words  might 
serve  as  a  motto  for  the  whole  work.     Elsewhere  he  is 

1  §  84-87.  *  19-  68  (=Col.  II.  3.  53)-  "  EP-  3-  5-  10 

*  2.  85  incomperta  haec  et  inextricabilia,  sed  prodenda  quia  sunt 
prodita. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    305 

less  candid,  once  even  assures  us  that  he  takes  no 
pleasure  in  proving  himself  painstaking  in  regard  to 
matters  of  no  importance.^  His  zoology  is  of  course 
notorious,  with  its  cepus,  a  beast  with  forefeet  like  a 
man's  hand,  but,  alas !  not  seen  at  Rome  since  Pompey 
showed  it,  its  hippopotamus  that  bleeds  itself  to  cure 
obesity,  its  fox  that  puts  an  ear  to  the  ice  to  guess  its 
power  to  bear  him,  its  fish  that  it  takes  a  team  of  oxen 
to  land.^  The  medical  books  are  full  of  childish, 
superstitious  remedies  against  which  at  least  one  of  his 
authorities,  the  Roman  Sextius  Niger,^  seems  to  have 
raised  a  protest.  It  is  a  terrible  thing  to  say  of  a 
learned  man,  but  Pliny  has  most  of  the  faihngs  of  the 
vulgar  mind.  He  beUeves  that  the  fact  that  Antony 
was  the  first  Roman  to  drive  a  team  of  lions  fore- 
shadowed his  future  tyranny  over  a  generous  nation, 
that  Nero's  end  was  portended  by  a  shifting  of  the 
earth's  crust,  which  involved  the  interchange  of 
positions,  on  either  side  of  the  highway,  between  an 
olive  garden  and  a  meadow.*  Curiosities  of  all  kinds 
find  ready  attention  from  him.  Celsus  says  that  the 
use  of  vinegar  as  a  remedy  for  snake-bites  was  acci- 
dentally discovered  by  a  boy  who,  having  been  bitten 
and  feeling  thirsty,  drank  some  for  lack  of  anything 
better  and  was  soon  well.  This  is  too  tame  for  Phny, 
who  makes  his  victim  get  bitten  whilst  carrying  a 
barrel  of  vinegar  and  discover  that  the  pain  gets  worse 
each  time  he  sets  his  burden  down  !  ^  There  is  a  touch 
of  nature  that  makes  this  ponderous  tome  kin  with  the 
flimsiest  articles  of  our  modern  magazines  in  the  passages 

*  17.  9  diligentiam  in  superuacuis  adfedare  non  nostrum  est. 
»  See  8.  70,  96,  103  ;  9.  44. 

*  See  Wellmann,  Kenocrates  aus  Aphrodisiasm  Hermes,  1907,  pp. 
614  sqq.  (on  the  evidence  of  Nat.  Hist.  29.  76,  32.  26). 

*  8.  55,  2.  199.  '  23-  56  (  =  Cels.  5.  27.  4). 

U 


3o6    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

that  describe  the  eyes  of  various  emperors  or  the  affection 
of  Tiberius  for  cucumbers  and  Livia  for  a  brand  of  wine 
to  which  she  beHeved  her  longevity  was  due,  cite 
Antony's  work  On  My  Own  Drunkenness,  explain  the 
political  differences  of  a  Drusus  and  a  Caepio  as  the 
outcome  of  rivalry  in  an  auction  room.^ 

Pliny's  vocabulary  is  full,  on  the  one  hand,  of  plain, 
inornate,  unliterary  words,  on  the  other,  of  those  which 
before  his  time  are  found  only  in  the  poets.  His 
general  style  shows  a  similar  discrepancy.  His 
Latinity  is  perhaps  the  worst  that  has  reached  us  from 
any  man  with  pretensions  to  culture  before  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries.  Almost  all  the  rules  that  made 
Rome's  language  the  clear  and  elegant  vehicle  of  ex- 
pression it  was  he  habitually  breaks,  making,  for 
instance,  one  genitive  depend  on  another,  using  the 
ablative  absolute  to  introduce  a  comment  or  correction 
(such  as  would  nowadays  be  relegated  to  a  footnote), 
or  to  add  an  entirely  fresh  point  to  a  sentence  already 
complete  in  itself,  omitting  some  important  word  that 
must  be  evolved  in  a  very  forced  manner  from  the 
preceding  sentence,  ending  clauses  with  one  that  has  no 
claim  to  a  position  of  such  distinction.  But  this 
slovenhness  does  not  mean  that  Pliny  is  superior  to  the 
passion  for  fine  writing.  The  cloven  hoof  of  rhetoric 
keeps  thrusting  out  in  the  most  unexpected  places, 
whilst  several  of  the  introductions  to  the  books,  and 
passages  like  the  panegyric  of  Italy  with  which  the 
work  concludes,  and  the  descriptions  of  the  nightingale's 
song  and  the  spider's  web,  proclaim  themselves  as  purple 
patches. 2  Occasionally  we  catch  the  accents  of  some 
reaUy  eloquent  source  : 

»  II.  143,  144  ;    19-  64  ;    14.  59  ;    14.  147  ;   33.  20. 
*  37.  201  sqq.  ;    10.  81,  82  ;    11.  80  sqq. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    307 

And  now  I  come  to  the  earth,  that  part  of  the  universe 
to  which  because  of  its  surpassing  services  we  have  given 
the  honourable  title  of  mother.  As  Heaven  belongs  to 
God,  so  she  to  man,  at  birth  receiving  us,  after  birth 
feeding  and  maintaining  us  always,  till  at  the  end,  when 
all  the  rest  of  Nature  disowns  us,  she  gathers  us  in  her  lap, 
then  most  of  all  a  mother  as  she  wraps  us  in  our  shroud. 
And  for  no  service  has  she  claim  on  our  reverence  more  than 
for  this,  that  she  brings  us  reverence,  by  the  monuments 
that  she  supports  and  the  tombstones  that  give  new  lease 
to  our  names,  and,  in  the  face  of  the  shortness  of  our  span, 
make  our  memory  endure.  Hers  is  the  power  to  which, 
last  of  all,  we  pray  in  our  anger,  that  she  fall  heavy  upon 
men  that  are  no  more — as  though  we  knew  not  that  she  of 
all  the  elements  alone  is  never  angry  with  man.  .  .  .  Nay, 
it  may  be  that  even  poison  she  has  provided  only  in  pity 
for  us,  to  save  them  that  are  weary  of  life  from  dying  the 
slow,  wasting  death  of  starvation  (that  beyond  all  others 
is  at  variance  with  her  own  generosity),  the  death  of  the 
precipice  (that  splinters  the  rent  frame),  the  death  of  the 
strangling  noose  (a  paradox  indeed,  that  pens  within  the 
breath  it  hoped  to  expel).  .  .  .  Still,  even  had  she  borne  it 
for  our  hurt,  we  could  not  well  complain  :  for  to  her  alone 
of  all  the  elements  do  we  prove  ungrateful.  What  whim, 
what  lust  is  there  for  which  man  makes  her  not  his  thrall  ? 
She  is  flung  in  the  sea  and  dug  out  to  admit  the  sea  ;  water, 
iron,  wood,  fire,  stone,  grain — with  all  these  is  she  tortured 
at  all  seasons,  and  this  far  more  that  she  may  minister  to 
our  luxuries  than  to  our  sustenance.  And  yet  these 
wounds,  suffered  on  the  surface,  the  outer  skin,  might  be 
counted  endurable  :  we  pierce  to  her  vitals  when  we  dig 
for  veins  of  gold  and  silver,  or  sink  copper  and  lead  mines. 
.  .  .  And  she  forgives,  the  more  easily  that  all  these  roads 
to  riches  lead  but  to  crime  and  murder  and  warfare,  that 
with  our  own  blood  we  bedew  her  and  cover  her  with  our 
unburied  bones,  over  which,  after  all,  she  in  the  end  doth 
spread  herself,  as  though  upbraiding  our  frenzy,  and  hides 
away  even  our  evil  deeds.  I  reckon  it  a  count  in  our  in- 
dictment as  ingrates  that  we  know  not  her  nature.^ 

1  2.  154-159- 


3o8   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

The  half -moralizing,  half-sentimental  tone  of  this 
extract  is  not  uncommon  in  Phny,  and  reminds  one 
somewhat  of  Maeterlinck : 

The  vine  should  sometimes  be  loosed  from  its  supporting 
elm  and  allowed  to  sprawl  about  at  random,  resting  on  the 
ground  whereon,  all  the  year,  it  has  been  gazing.  Mules 
after  a  journey,  dogs  after  a  course,  love  a  good  roll,  and  the 
vine  likewise  is  glad  to  stretch  its  legs.^ 

Strange  that  from  a  tiny  flax-seed  should  come  that  which 
carries  the  whole  world  to  and  fro,  that  it  should  grow  on  so 
slender  a  stalk,  that  rises  not  far  out  of  the  ground,  and 
even  this  seed  must  be  broken  and  beaten  and  forced  to 
acquire  the  soft  fleeciness  of  wool.^ 

Plants  are  grown  so  precious  that  they  are  nourished  by 
pouring  wine  on  the  roots  :  we  must  needs  teach  even  the 
trees  to  soak.^ 

Hardly  less  whimsical  is  the  blunt,  Catonian  humour 
with  which  he  rails  against  the  Greeks  (to  whom  he 
owes  so  much),  especially  their  doctors  : 

This  is  the  secret  of  the  wordy  battles  fought  around  the 
sick-bed,  each  man  suggesting  something  new  for  fear  he  be 
suspected  of  following  some  colleague's  lead,  the  secret, 
too,  of  that  melancholy  epitaph.  Died  of  too  many  doctors. 
.  .  .  Our  dangers  afford  them  training,  and  they  test 
their  powers  at  our  death-beds.  Only  the  doctor  may  kill 
a  man  and  escape  punishment.  Nay,  the  blame  is  shifted 
round  and  put  on  our  own  lack  of  self-control :  'tis  actually 
those  who  die  that  are  indicted.* 

That  the  Natural  History  is  not  wholly  devoid  of 
interest,  I  hope  these  extracts  may  have  given  the 
reader  reason  to  suspect.  It  also  contains  a  mass  of 
really  valuable  information.  The  respect  with  which 
Gibbon,  in  the  passage  quoted  above,  mentions  it,  and  |j 
the  readiness  with  which  Mommsen  in  his  chapters  on 


^  17.  209,  210.  "  19.  5. 

*  12.  8.  *  29.  II  and  iS. 


i 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE     309 

public  economy,  faith  and  manners,  and  culture  draws 
upon  its  stores,  sufficiently  attest  the  matter  in  a  general 
way  :  two  particular  points  may  be  mentioned  here. 
No  ancient  writer  sheds  more  hght  upon  the  industry 
and  commerce  of  those  days  than  does  PHny,  with  his 
descriptions  of  the  way  mines  are  worked,  metals 
smelted,  stuffs  dyed,  and  paper  manufactured, ^  his 
hints  as  to  the  adulteration  of  drugs  and  the  means  for 
detecting  the  same,^  his  wealth  of  notices  bearing  upon 
the  most  varied  aspects  of  the  subject — relations 
between  employer  and  employe,  for  instance,  are 
illuminated  by  the  reference  he  makes  to  the  clause  in 
vine-dressers'  contracts  which  guaranteed  decent  burial 
in  case  of  a  fatal  fall  from  the  supporting  elm,^  whilst 
the  economic  doctrine,  according  to  which  '  the  con- 
sumer pays  the  difference,'  could  hardly  be  better 
illustrated  than  it  is  by  the  humorous  sketch  he  gives 
of  the  snowball  growth  of  expenses  about  the  frank- 
incense of  Arabia  during  its  long  journey  to  the  sea  : 
'  so  it  is  that  a  pound  of  the  best  costs  ten  pieces,'  he 
concludes.*  Of  the  other  great  debt  we  owe  him,  the 
preservation  of  much  matter  from  books  now  lost,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  speak  in  detail.  It  was,  no  doubt,  in 
one  of  these  that  he  read  the  story  of  how  King  Porsena 
of  Clusium  had  once  been  strong  enough  to  forbid 
Rome  the  use  of  iron  except  for  ploughshares,^  a  story 
for  which  patriotic  writers  Hke  Livy  had  long  since 
substituted  the  glorious  fables  of  the  Scaevola  and 
Cloeha,  whose  gallant  deeds  compel  an  admiring 
monarch  to  seek  the  friendship  of  their  land. 

^  33-  70  m->  34-  94  m-,  9-  I33  m-,  13-  68  sqq.         «  Cp.  e.g.  12.  76. 

*  14.  10  {uttes)  in  tantum  sublimes  ut  tniidemitor  aucforatits  rogunt 
ac  tumulum  excipiat.  *  12.  63-65. 

'  34.  139.  Of  extant  Roman  writers  Tacitus  alone  alludes  to  a 
surrender  of  the  capital  to  Porsena  [Hist.  3.  72). 


310   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Juvenal  has,  I  think,  occasional  reminiscences  of  the 
Natural  History ;  Gellius  quotes  it ;  in  the  third  century 
Solinus  and  the  poet  of  medicine,  Sammonicus,  use  it ;  ^ 
in  the  fourth,  Books  Twenty  to  Thirty-Two  were  worked 
into  a  manual,  Pliny's  Medicine,  as  it  is  generally 
called,  which  had  a  great  vogue.  Fragments  of  fifth 
and  sixth-century  MSS.  are  still  extant,  and  the  use  of 
the  book  by  Isidore,  Bede,  and  Alcuin  ^  carries  us  on  to 
the  Middle  Ages,  when  it  becomes  the  scientific  text- 
book of  the  day.  Nevertheless,  it  is  not  one  of  the 
commonest  possessions  of  the  early  Renaissance,  though 
Petrarch  had  a  copy  and  honours  the  author  with  a 
letter.  Directly  or  indirectly,  Maundeville  draws  on 
Pliny  (well  might  the  Pope  tell  him  that  he  had  a  '  boke 
of  Latin  containing  all  that  and  muche  moore '), 
Rabelais  often  uses  him,  Elyot  in  the  Governour  sets 
him  beside  Aristotle  and  Theophrastus,  the  fantastic 
natural  history  of  the  Euphuists  owes  him  much.^ 
Even  after  Montaigne  has  sounded  a  note  of  warning, 
and  Bacon  has  classed  our  author  with  those  whose 
writings  are  '  fraught  with  much  fabulous  matter,' 
Milton  recommends  him  \vithout  reserve  to  Hartlib, 
and  La  Fontaine's  Pline  le  dit :  il  lefaut  croire,  ironically 
though  it  is  said,  no  doubt  represents  the  prevalent  view 
of  his  day.  Buffon  was  perhaps  the  last  man  of  science 
to  treat  him  with  any  respect.  But  the  genial  Sainte- 
Beuve,  that  warm  admirer  of  the  younger  Phny, 
found  much  to  charm  him  in  the  work  of  the  uncle,  to 
which  he  pays  eloquent  tribute  in  one  of  his  Causeries.^ 

^  Sammonicus  twice  cites  Pliny  (II.  53,  845). 

*  Manitius  I.e.  in  index  s.v.  Plinius  der  Aeltere. 

'  See  the  notes  to  Bond's  edition  of  Lyly,  whose  Campaspe  is 
based  on  Nat.  Hist.  35.  86. 

*  Causeries  du  Lundi,  22  Avril,  1850. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    311 

5.  The  Manuals  of  Frontinus 

Sextus  Julius  Frontinus,  after  being  consul,^  was 
governor  of  Britain  from  about  a.d.  76  to  a.d.  78,2 
becarne  curator  of  the  aqueducts  in  a.d.  97,^  was  consul 
again  in  a.d.  98  and  a.d.  100,  and  died,  as  we  gather 
from  a  passage  in  the  younger  Pliny, ^  who,  like  Martial, 
was  a  friend  of  his,  somewhere  about  a.d.  104. 

Frontinus  tells  us  ^  that  he  had  made  a  habit  of 
setting  down  in  writing,  for  the  use  of  his  successors, 
a  summary  of  the  knowledge  and  experience  which  he 
had  gained  in  the  administration  of  an  office.  A  work 
on  gromatica  (field-surveying),  of  which  only  excerpts 
remain,  and  another  on  military  service,  represented 
now  only  by  its  appendix,  the  Strategemata,^  were 
probably  manuals  of  this  sort  :  internal  evidence  shows 
them  to  have  been  written  under  Domitian.'  The  On 
Aqueducts,  which  has  reached  us  intact,  was  intended 
primarily  as  a  book  of  reference  for  the  author  himself, 

1  See  Prosop.  Imp  Rom.  2,  p.  192  for  the  dates  of  the  consulships. 
'  Tac.  Agr.  17.  '  De  Aquis,  102. 

*  Phn.  Ep.  4.  8.  3  (the  pubHcation  of  the  book  is  generally  assigned 
to  the  beginning  of  a.d.  105).  Martial  addresses  10.  58  to  him,  and 
the  language  of  Plin.  I.e.  and  5.  i.  5  suggests  intimacy. 

*  De  Aquis  praef.  2  ea  quae  ad  uniuersam  rem  pertinentia  con- 
trahere  potui,  more  iam  per  multa  mihi  officia  seruato  in  ordinem  et 
uelut  corpus  diducta  in  hunc  commentarium  contuli  .  .  .  in  aliis 
autem  libris,  quos  post  experimenta  et  tisum  composui,  succedentium 
res  acta  est  ;  hums  commentarii  pertinabit  fortassis  et  ad  successorem 
utilitas,  sed  cum  inter  initia  administrationis  meae  scriptus  sit  imprimis 
ad  nostram  institutionem  regulamque  proficiet. 

*  That  a  theoretic  treatise  has  preceded  seems  clear  from  the  words 
of  the  preface  :  cum  ad  instruendam  rei  militaris  scientiam  .  .  . 
accesserim  eique  destinato  quantum  cura  nostra  ualuit  satisfecisse 
uisus  sim,  deberi  adhuc  institutae  arbitror  operae  ut  sollertia  ducum 
facta  .  .  .  expeditis  amplectar  commentariis. 

'  For  the  gromatic  work  see  p.  54  of  Lachmann's  edition  in 
Schriften  der  rom.  Feldmesser  ;  the  Strategemata  presumes  Domitian 
alive  and  in  possession  of  the  Germanicus  title  which  he  seems  to 
have  assumed  in  a.d.  84  {Strat.  2.  11.  7). 


312    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

and  was  composed  at  the  beginning  of  his  charge, ^  under 
Nerva. 

From  any  other  point  of  view  than  that  of  subject 
matter,  our  author  is  certainly  the  most  insignificant  of 
all  the  prosaists  with  whom  this  book  is  concerned. 
And  even  the  contents  of  the  three  books  of  the 
Stratagems  call  for  but  brief  notice.  Book  One  contains 
stratagems  that  may  be  needed  before  the  battle, 
Book  Two  those  to  be  used  during  or  after  the  battle, 
Book  Three  those  suitable  for  a  siege.  Each  of  the 
twelve  to  eighteen  chapters  that  go  to  a  book  deals  with 
a  particular  class  of  stratagem — '  how  to  discover  the 
enemy's  plans,'  '  how  to  divide  his  forces,'  '  how  to 
conceal  disasters.'  ^  Many  examples  come  from 
Caesar,  Sallust,  and  Livy,  but  foreign  history  is  not 
ignored. 

The  treatise  was  known  to  the  Greek  Aehan,^  and 
had  vogue  enough  for  some  one  to  imitate  and  use  it  in  a 
collection  of  Sirategica  or  Deeds  and  Sayings  of  Generals 
which  appears  in  our  MSS.  as  Book  Four  of  the 
Strategemata.  It  has,  however,  a  preface  of  its  own, 
and,  although  in  this  preface  and  in  the  last  paragraph 
of  the  Strategemata  preface  as  it  stands  in  our  MSS.,  it  is 
imphed  that  both  collections  are  by  one  and  the  same 
author,  it  is  practically  certain  that  Frontinus  did  not 
write  the  Deeds  and  Sayings,  and  that  the  passages  wliich 
imply  common  authorship  have  been  interpolated  for 
the  express  purpose  of  fathering  it  upon  him.  John 
of  Salisbury  and  most  of  the  early  Renaissance  scholars 
know  Frontinus,  and  Machiavelli  in  his  treatise  on  the 
art  of  war  draws  most  of  his  ancient  lore  from  him — 
without  acknowledgment. 

1  De  Aquis,  praef.  2.     The  reference  to  Nerva  as  deified  (§  118) 
points  to  its  having  been  published  later. 

2.  7.  '  Ael.  De  Ordin.  Tnst.  i. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  TECHNICAL  PROSE    313 

The  book  about  the  water  supply  is  our  main  source 
of  information  on  that  interesting  subject.  After 
three  chapters  of  preface,  nineteen  describe  the  history 
of  the  construction  of  each  aqueduct,  the  ground  from 
which  it  collects,  its  length,  the  height  at  which  it 
reaches  the  city,  its  course  within  the  city  itself,  and 
the  quarters  which  it  supplies.  Then  forty-one 
impossible  chapters  are  concerned  with  the  method  of 
measuring  and  regulating  supply  by  means  of  tubes  of 
various  diameters  inserted  in  the  walls  of  the  reservoirs. 
With  Chapter  Sixty-Four  the  non-mathematical  reader 
breathes  freely  again,  and  proceeds  to  learn  how 
Frontinus,  discovering  that  the  official  estimate  of  the 
total  yield  amounted  to  1200  units  less  than  he  was 
bound  to  supply,  set  certain  investigations  on  foot 
which  revealed  that  there  was  in  reahty  a  large  excess 
on  the  right  side,  the  bulk  of  it  represented  by  water 
which  was  being  stolen  in  various  ways,  on  which  he 
enlarges  with  some  feeling. ^  With  Chapter  Seventy- 
Seven  dullness  sets  in  once  more,  with  statistics  as  to 
the  quantity  of  water  each  aqueduct  had  to  supply  to  the 
emperor,  to  private  individuals,  and  to  public  institu- 
tions. At  Chapter  Eighty-Seven  interest  revives  and  is 
sustained  to  the  end.  Various  reforms  of  Nerva's  are 
recounted,  such  as  the  means  taken  to  ensure  that  no 
district  should  depend  on  a  single  aqueduct  and  go 
dry  when  serious  repairs  had  to  be  undertaken. ^ 
There  follows  a  complete  list  of  the  author's  pre- 
decessors in  the  curatorship,^  some  account  of  the 
water- works  staff  and  its  duties,*  remarks  upon  the 
difficulty  of  keeping  the  aqueducts  in  proper  condition, 

*  §§  75.  76  :   he  recurs  to  the  subject  at  §  112. 

■^  §  87.  »  §  102. 

*  §§   100  sqq.,   116,  117. 


314    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

and  fairly  full  extracts  from  resolutions  of  the  senate 
bearing  upon  the  execution  of  repairs,  encroachments 
upon  the  strip  of  land  which  was  reserved  on  both 
sides  of  the  channel,  and  the  tapping  of  the  aqueduct 
itself  by  those  whose  land  it  crossed.^  The  last  chapter 
may  be  quoted  as  a  fair  example  of  the  author's  style 
at  its  best : 

I  admit  that  people  who  disregard  a  most  important  law 
deserve  the  penalty  it  prescribes,  but  they  may  have  been 
misled  by  its  having  been  so  long  in  abeyance,  and  one  must 
not  be  hard  on  them  in  that  case.  I  accordingly  did  my  best 
to  prevent  the  publication  of  offenders'  names.  Indeed,  | 
some  of  them,  whom  the  warning  prompted  to  have  ^[ 
recourse  to  the  imperial  bounty,  may  regard  me  as  the 
cause  of  their  having  obtained  a  privilege.  As  regards  the 
future,  whilst  I  trust  that  occasion  for  enforcing  the  law 
will  not  arise,  still  that  which  duty  demands  must  be  done 
even  if  it  involves  making  enemies.^ 

The  treatise  seems  to  have  been  little  known  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  but  there  is  every  reason  to  beheve  that  it 
was  included  in  the  monk  of  Hersf eld's  promises, 
though  not  his  deliveries,  the  discovery  at  Monte 
Cassino  of  the  MS.  which  is  still  preserved  there,  and 
seems  to  be  the  ancestor  of  all  others  now  existing, 
having  been  reserved  for  Poggio.  Empty  as  it  is  alike 
of  interesting  anecdote  and  pithy  maxim,  it  is  rarely 
quoted  by  modern  writers.  Burton,  however,  mentions 
it  in  the  Anatomy.^ 


To  conclude  a  History  of  Literature  with  a  chapter 
on  technical  writers  is  to  achieve  something  of  a  climax, 
and  I  should  like,  before  taking  farewell  of  my  reader, 
to  recall  to  his  mind  some  of  the  considerations  which 

1   §§  119  sqq.  *   §  130.  *  2.  2.  I.  I. 


CONCLUSION  315 

make  our  period  worthy  of  serious  study  and  real 
esteem.     It  did  not,  it  is  true,  contribute  to  literature 
one  of  its  very  greatest  figures.     Of  poetry  in  the 
highest   sense   it   was    almost   barren.     But   for   the 
pointed  epigram   and  the   invective  satire  of  which 
Martial  and  Juvenal  may  be  reckoned  the  inventors 
they  are  still  the  models,  often  copied,  but  never  sur- 
passed, whilst,  in  the  domain  which  lies  midway  betwixt 
poetry  and  prose,  Petronius  has  exhibited  a  power  of 
characterization  and  realistic  description,  a  taste  in 
matters  artistic  and  literary,  a  versatility  of  wit  and 
humour,  such  as  make  the  fact  that  he  too  is  a  pioneer 
seem  but  the  least  of  his  merits.     In  prose  proper,  we 
find  yet  again,  in  the  younger  Pliny,  an  inventor  and 
perfect  model  of  a  new  genre,  the  rhetorical  epistle,  as 
we  may  perhaps,  for  want  of  a  better  term,  call  it. 
The  thoroughness  of  Quintilian,   the  breadth  of  his 
outlook,  his  critical  acumen,  command  respect  even 
from  the  severest  critics  of  Rome's  hterary  and  educa- 
tional ideals.     As  for  Seneca  and  Tacitus,   they  are 
admittedly  two  of  the  greatest  names  in  Roman  litera- 
ture.    If,  in  our  own  times,  the  Philosopher  has  been 
compelled  to  yield  the  palm  to  the  Historian,  it  is,  I 
believe,  mainly  because  too  much  influence  is  conceded 
to  those  human  weaknesses  of  his,  which  stand  out  so 
clearly  in  the  fierce  light  that  beats  upon  his  career  : 
bene  qui  latuit,  bene  uixit.     In  style  and  thought  I 
hold  him  the  greater  man.     His  Latin  is  always  clear, 
its  very  mannerisms  being  prompted  by  the  desire  to 
gain  point  and  emphasis.     And  the  philosophy  which 
he  so  earnestly  preaches,  practical  and  yet  not  material- 
istic,  hopeful  and    yet    free   from  sentimentality,   is 
infinitely  nobler  than  that  of  Tacitus. 

Many  centuries  were  to  elapse  before  there  would 


1 

3i6    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

be  produced  in  the  whole  continent  of  Europe,  within 
the  compass  of  a  hundred  years,  a  body  of  writings 
comparable  in  diversity,  originality,  and  excellence 
with  the  work  which  the  Romans  had  produced  in  this 
the  Silver  Age  of  their  literature. 


NOTE  ON   TRANSLATIONS 

The  chief  series  are  those  of  the  Loeb  Library  (W.  Heinemann, 
London ;  Putnam's  Sons,  New  York) ;  the  Bibliothique  latine 
publ.  sous  la  dir.  de  Des.  Nisard{Y.  Didot,  Paris) ;  the  Bibliotheque 
latine-frangaise  of  the  Collection  Panckoucke  (Gamier,  Paris), 
and  Bohn's  Library  (Bell  &  Sons,  London).  In  the  case  of  the 
first  three,  the  translation  is  accompanied  by  the  Latin  text ;  in 
the  case  of  all,  the  translations  of  poets  are  in  prose. 

Oalpurnius : 

Puget  (Nisard). 
Celsus :    , 

Des  Etangs  (Nisard) ;  Friebois  (Braunschweig). 
Columella : 

Nisard  (Nisard). 
Curtius : 

Vaugelas  (Nisard) ;  Gueroult  (Panckoucke). 
Frontinus  : 

Strategemata :  (promised  in  Loeb  series). 
De  Aquis :  Rondelet  (Nisard);  Herschel,  Boston  ;  promised 
in  Loeb  series. 
Juvenal  and  Persius : 

Ramsay  (Loeb). 
Lucan : 

Haureau  (Nisard) ;   {in  verse)  Ridley  (Longmans,  Green  & 
Co.,  1905)  ;  promised  in  Loeb  series. 
Martial : 

Ker  (Loeb  :  2  vols.,  of  which  one  has  appeared  and  the  second 

is  announced  for  1920  . 
The  anonymous  translation  in  Bohn's  Library  is  interesting, 
as  it  contains  many  renderings  and  adaptations  in  verse, 
collected  from  various  sources.  See  also  M.  for  English 
Readers^  W.  T.  Webb  (Macmillan) ;  Selection  from  the 
Epigrams  of  M.^  W.  J.  Courthope  (Murray). 
Mela: 

Huot  (Nisard). 
Persius : 

Conington  in  his  edition  (Clar.  Press) :  see  also  'Juvenal.' 
Petronius  : 

Heseltine  (Loeb). 
Phaedrus : 

Fleutelot (Nisard) ;  Pessonneaux (Panckoucke);  Riley (Bohn). 

817 


3i8   SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 

Pliny  the  Elder : 

Littre  (Nisard) ;  Bostock  and  Riley  (Bohn)  ;  promised  in  Loeb 
series. 
Pliny  the  Younger : 

Hutchinson    (Loeb :    i    vols.,   the    Letters    only,   including 
those  to  and  from  Trajan). 
Quintilian : 

Baudet  (Nisard) ;  Charpentier  (Panckoucke) ;  Watson  (Bohn) ; 
promised  in  Loeb  series. 
Scrihonius : 

Schonack  (Fischer,  Jena  1913). 
Seneca  the  Elder : 

Bornecque  (Panckoucke). 
Seneca  the  Younger : 

Tragedies:  F.  J.  Miller  (Loeb). 

Apotheosis :  in  the  Loeb  Petronius. 

Nat.   Ouaest. :   '  Physical  Science,'  Clark  and  Geikie  (Mac- 

millan,  19 10). 
Ep.  Mor :  Gummere  (Loeb  :  3  vols.,  of  which  one,  containing 
Epp.  1-65,  has  appeared)  ;   Pintrelle-La  Fontaine  (Nisard), 
Charpentier-Lemaistre  (Panckoucke). 
Other  philosophical  works :  Regnault  (Nisard) ;  Charpentier- 
Lemaistre  (Panckoucke);    *On  Benefits,'  Stewart  (Bohn); 
'  Minor    Essays    and    On    Clemency,'    Stewart    (Bohn) ; 
'  Moral  Essays'  promised  in  Loeb  series. 
Silius : 

Kermoysan  (Nisard). 
Statius : 

Achilleis :  Wartel  (Nisard). 
Thebais  :  Arnould  (Nisard). 
Silvae :  Slater  (Oxford  Library  of  Translations). 
Sulpicia : 

In  the  Panckoucke  translation  of  Juvenal  and  Persius. 
Tacitus : 

Annals  and  Histories :  Church  and  Brodribb  (Macmillan). 
Agricola,   Germania,   Dialogus :    Peterson  -  Hutton    (Loeb); 
Fyfe  (Oxford  Library  of  Translations). 
Valerius  Flaccus : 

Nisard  (Nisard) ;  promised  in  Loeb  series. 
Valerius  Maximus : 

Baudement  (Nisard);  Charpentier  (Panckoucke). 
Velleius  : 

Gr^ard   (Panckoucke);     Watson   (Bohn:    with   Sallust   and 
Florus) ;  promised  in  Loeb  series. 


INDEX 


Achilleis,  argument  of  the  27 

Afer,  Cn.  Domitius  129 

Agricola,  the  165,  166 

Agriculture,  works  on  283  sqq. 

Agrippina  161 

Albinouanus  Pedo  18 

Annaeus  :  see  Lucanus,  Seneca 

Annales  165 

Annals,  the  165,  168  sqq. 

Antimachus  and  Statius  5 1 

Aper,  M.  131 

Apocolocyntosis  :  see  Apotheosis 

ApoUonius    and    Valerius    Flaccus, 

comparison  of  43  sqq.,  47 
Apophoreta  lOi 
Apostrophe  in  Epic  32 
Apotheosis  Divi  Claudii  217  sqq.  ; 

its  author  219  ;  its  relationship  to 

the  Apocolocyntosis  220 
Aqueducts,  work  on  the  3 1 3 
Aquilius  Regulus,  M.  132 
Agiiis,  the  Z>e  313 
Aratus  and  Germanicus  97 
Archaizing  tendency  189 
Argonaiiiica,  argument  of  the  20  sqq. 
Arulenus  Rusticus  161 
Asconius  Pedianus,  Q.  254 
Atellana  55 
Aufidius  Bassus  150 
'  Augustan   age   of    literature,'   the 

term  i 
Authorities    by    the   ancients,    the 

quotation  of  148,  153,  303,  304 

Bees,  The  Poor  Man's  14 

Benejiciis,  the  De  198 

Biography  160  sqq. ;  of  Lucan  18*; 
of  Persius  66,  255  ;  of  Juvenal 
74  ;  of  the  elder  Pliny  300^ 

Caesius  Bassus  66,  96 
Calendars,  ancient  285 
Calpurnius  Siculus,  T.  90  sqq. 


Celsus,     A.     Cornelius     277  ;     his 

medical     work     277     sqq.  ;     on 

agriculture  283 ;    on    philosophy 

195  ;  on  rhetoric  265 
Cepiis  305 

Character- drawing  227 
Classicism,  early  form  of  17 
Claudius,  the  emperor  :  his  histories 

151;     his    autobiography     160; 

speech  of  his  in  the  senate  176 
Clefnentia,  the  De  198 
Cluvius  Rufus  158 
Colloquial  Latin  67,  88,  202,  218, 

228,  286,  306 
Co  lores  257 
Columella,    L.    Junius    Moderalus 

283  sqq.  ;    his  imitation  and  use 

of  Virgil  288 
Comedy  55 

Commerce  and  industry  309 
Conies  in  Phaedrus  86  sqq. 
Controuersia  257 
Corbulo,  Cn.  Domitius  161 
Cornutus,  L.  Annaeus  66,  72,  195 
Country-life,  taste  for  113  sqq. 
Cremutius  Cordus,  A.  138 
Crispus,  Q.  Vibius  130 
Criticism,  literary  227,  2^^  sqq.,  273 
Curiatius  Maternus  56 
Curtius  Rufus,  Q.  152  sqq. 

Declamations,  the  6  sqq.,  222, 
2^,7  sqq.,  262,  274;  their  influence 
upon  literature  12  sqq.,  154; 
collections  ascribed  to  Quintilian 

275 

Delatores  128 

Dialogi,  Seneca's  199 

Dialogus  ascribed  to  Tacitus,  the 
261  sqq.  ;  date  of  its  composition 
164,  260;  dramatic  date  of  the 
work  260 ;  its  style  260 ;  its 
educational  standpoint  263 

Sl'J 


320    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 


Diatribe,  Cynic  66,  154,  197,  199, 

296 
Dilettantism  2,  3,  245 
Diitisiones  257 
Domitius  Afer,  Cn.  129 
Drama,  the  55  sqq. 

Eclogue,  the  90  sqq. 

Education,  Roman  5  sqq.,  222,  263, 

267  sqq. 
Einsiedeln  poems  94 
Elegy,  the  96 

Eloquence  in  Seneca  205  sqq. 
Emperors,  oratorical  powers  of  the 

128 
Encyclopaedia  of  Celsus  (?)  277  ;  of 

the  elder  Pliny  300 
Epic,  the  18  sqq. 
Epic  poets,  points  common  to  the 

Silver  29  sqq. 
Epicurus,  Seneca's  view  of  210 
Epigram,  the  99  sqq. 
Epigrammatic  sayings,  maxims,  etc. : 

in  Juvenal  82  ;    in  Seneca  202  ; 

in  Tacitus  185  sqq.  ;   in  Velleius 

142 
Episodes,  overgrown  30,  31 
Epistulae  Morales,  Seneca's  198 
Euripides    and    Seneca    57  ;     and 

Statius  51 
Exaggeration  30,  81,  291 

Fable,  the  85 

Fenestella  252 

Frigus  5 

Frontinus,  S.  Julius  311  sqq. 

Gaetulicus,  Cn.  Lentulus  103' 
Galerius  Trachalus,  P.  131 
Geography,  works  on  289  sqq. 
Gennania,  the  165,  295  sqq. 
Germanicus,    epigrams  ascribed    to 

99 ;      a    translation     of    Aratus 

probably  his  97 
Germany  and  Rome  295 
Gesta  Roniatiorurn  7 
Grammar,  works  on  252  sqq. 
Grammatice  252 

Hercules  Oetaeus,  the  58 
Herennius  Senecio  161 


Hexameter  of  Statius,  the  52,  120 
Historia   of    Pliny,    the    Natiiralis 

301  sqq. 
Historiae  of  Tacitus,  the  165,  168 
History    137    sqq.  ;     a    dangerous 

subject   under  the  Empire   137  ; 

speeches     introduced     in      I7S ; 

literary   history   in   Velleius    144 

sqq. 
Homer  imitated  by  epic  poets  38 ; 

translated  anonymously  97 
Horace  imitated  by  Persius  69,  70' 


Iambic  of  Phaedrus,  the  89 

Idyll,  the  90  sqq. 

Ilias  Latina,  the  97  sqq. 

Illustrations  in  Seneca  204 

Imitation  :  a  stylistic  convention  39,     < 
260 ;   of  Cicero  260 ;   of  Homer 
38 ;    of   Sallust   291  ;    of   Virgil 
38  sqq. 

Institutio  Oratoria,  the  267  'Sqq. 

lulius  Secundus  131 

luuenalis,  D.  lunius  74  sqq. ;  defects 
of  his  satire  81  ;  foreibleness  of 
his  observations  82 ;  his  descriptive 
powers  83 


Latis  Pisonis,  the  94 

Learning  in  the  Epics  32,  35,  36 ; 

in  Juvenal  81 
Letters  of  Pliny  theyounger  239  sqq. ; 

of  Seneca   198;    of   Trajan   248 

sqq.  ;  poetical  1 19 
Literary  criticism  :  see  Criticism 

history  in  Velleius  144  sqq. 

Love  poetry  96 

Lucanus,  M.  Annaeusi8;  his  poems 

19  ;    his    Pharsalia   1 9,   29  sqq., 

41  sqq.  ;  his  Saturnalia  95 
Lucilius  and  Persius  66,  69 
Lupus,  P.  Rutilius  265 
Lyrical  poetry  95 


Mamercus    Aemilius    Scaurus 

129 
Manuals  of  Frontinus  311 


INDEX 


321 


Martialis,  M.  Valerius  lOO  sqq.  ; 
his  epigrams  103  sqq.  ;  his 
character  no  sqq.  ;  not  without 
tenderness  112;  a  lover  of  the 
country  113  sqq. 

Medicine,  works  on  277  sqq. 

Mela,  Pomponius  289  sqq. 

Memoirs  160 

Menippean  satire  65,  217,  233  sqq. 

Messalla  :  see  A^ipstanus 

Metaphors :  in  Persius  68  ;  in  Seneca 
204  ;  in  Tacitus  188 

Military  science,  works  on  311 

Mime,  the  55 

Mock-heroic  verse  235 

Moralizing  in  the  epics  32  ;  in  the 
elder  Pliny  308 

Mucianus,  C.  Licinius  293 

Mythological  allusions  and  illustra- 
tions 124  ;  similes  35 

Natural     History     in    the    epic 

poets  36,  53  ;  Pliny's  301  sqq. 
Naturales  Quaestiones,  the   198 
Nature,  interest  in  114,  247 
Nonianus,  M.  Seruilius  157 
'  Novel,'  ancient  equivalents  for  the 
term  233 

Odauia,  the  61 

Oratory  128  sqq. 

Ovid  and  the  declamations  13  ;  the 

model  of  the  Silver  epic  poets  29 ; 

in  Seneca  205 

Palaemon,  Q.  Remmius  253 
Panegyric  of  Fiso,  the  94 
Panegyricus,  Pliny's  133  sqq. 
Papinius  :  see  Statius 
Part,  the  whole  subordinated  to  the 

5.  i5>  30,  35.  81,  144 

Passennus  Paullus,  C.  96 

Paterculus  :  see  Velleius 

Pedo,  Albinouanus  18 

Persius  Placcus,  A.  66 ;  his  obscurity 
67  sqq  ;  his  bookishness  69 

Petronius  Arbiter  probably  the 
Petronius  of  Tacitus  221  ;  his 
novel  221  sqq.  ;  his  literary 
criticism  227  ;  versatility  of  his 
style  and  strength  of  his  character- 


ization 227  sqq.  ;  his  Banquet  of 
Trhnalchio  227  ;  his  novel  a 
Menippean  satire  233  sqq.  ; 
epigrams  attributed  to  him  99 

Phaedrus  85  sqq.  ;  contes  included 
among  his  fables  86  sqq. 

Phaenomena  of  Aratus,  translation 
of  the  97 

Pharsalia,  argument  of  the  19 

'  Pindar  (Theban) '  99 

Philosophy  195  sqq. 

Plinius  Secundus,  C.  {the  elder  Pliny) 
300  ;  his  Naturalis  Historia  301 
sqq.  ;  its  discursiveness  302  ;  its 
uncritical  character  304 ;  its 
Latinity  306  ;  its  purple  patches 
306  sqq.  ;  its  geographical  books 
293  ;  value  of  its  contents  308  ; 
Pliny's  biography  of  Pomponius 
Secundus  161  ;  his  grammatical 
work  254 ;  his  historical  works 
159,  160 ;  his  rhetorical  work 
265 

Plinius  Caecilius  Secundus,  C.  (the 
younger  Pliny)  238  ;  his  letters 
239  sqq.  ;  his  interest  in  literature 
245  sqq.  ;  his  sympathy  with 
Nature  247  ;  his  reflections  248  ; 
his  correspondence  with  Trajan 
248  sqq.  ;  his  elegiacs  96  ;  his 
epigrams  99  ;  his  speeches  133  ; 
his  Panegyricus  133  sqq. 

Poetry,  true 43 i-$r^. ,  ^9 sqq.,  59.^(7^., 
125,  126 

Poetry  and  prose  confused,  styles 
of  14 

Point  12,  29,  30,  142,  187,  188, 
203,  204  ;  the  taste  for  it  natural 
to  Roman  temperament  15  sqq. 

Political  use  made  of  the  writings 
of  Tacitus  193  sqq. 

Pomponius  Secundus,  P.  56 

Praetexta  56 ;  its  composition 
dangerous    under   the    Emperors 

Prefaces  to  poetical  works  56,  118 
Probus,  M.  Valerius  254 
Proportion,  loss  of  the  sense  of  :  set 

Part 
Prose  :  see  Poetry 
Puuica,  argument  of  the  28 


322    SILVER  AGE  OF  LATIN  LITERATURE 


QuiNTiLiANUS,  M.  Fabius  266; 
his  work  on  rhetoric  267  sqq. ;  not 
a  mere  teacher  of  rhetoric  273  ; 
declamations  ascribed  to  275 

Rant  in  Seneca's  plays  59 
Realism  in  tlie  mime  55;  in  Petronius 

227  sqq. 
Recitations,   the    3   sqq.    152,    246, 

247 
Regulus,  M.  Aquilius  132 
Repetition  of  a  thought  in  a  different 

form  13,  14 
Rhetoric  of  Silver  Latin  1 2  ;  writers 

on    265    sqq.  ;     its    influence    on 

Statius'  Siluae  119 
Romance  in  the  declamations  7  :  see 

also  Novel 
Rusticus,  Fabius  158 
Rutilius  Lupus,  P.  265 

Saleius  Bassus  54^ 

Sal  lust  and  the  pointed  style  17  : 
imitated  by  Mela  291 ;  by  Tacitus 
189 

Satire,  Republican  and  Augustan 
64,  65  ;  in  verse  66  sqq.  ;  in  prose 
217  sqq.,  233  sqq.  ;  in  Seneca's 
philosophical  works  209 

Saiura,  meaning  of  the  word  64 

Scribonius  Largus  282 

Seneca,  L.  Annaeus  [the elder  Seneca) 
255  ;  his  work  on  the  declamations 
6,  256  sqq.  ;  his  history  150 

Seneca,  L.  Annaeus  [the  younger 
Seneca)  195 ;  his  biographical 
work  213  ;  epigrams  ascribed  to 
99  ;  his  geographical  works  293  ; 
his  philosophical  programme  197  ; 
and  works  198 ;  their  main 
objective  morals  200  ;  their  style 
and  language  202  sqq.  ;  their 
eloquence  205  sqq.  ;  philosophical 
standpoint  of  Seneca  207  sqq.  ;  his 
laxity  211  ;  and  want  of  s3'-stem 
212;  influence  of  his  prose  writings 
213  sqq.  ;  his  speeches  130;  his 
tragedies  57  sqq.  ;  their  influence 
62  sqq. 

Senecan  drama  57  sqq. 

Sentimentality  50,  308 


Serranus  54' 

Seruilius  Nonianus,  M.  157 

Silius  Italicus,  T.  27  ;  his  Punica  , 
28,  30  sqq.,  53  ;  ascription  to  - 
him  of  the  Ilias  Latina  98 

Stlua,  meaning  of  the  word  118  ' 

Siluae  of  Lucan  1 9  ;  of  Statius  117 
sqq. 

Similes  in  Epic  34  sqq.  ;  in  Valerius 
Flaccus  47 

Spectacular um.  Liber  loi 

Speeches  in  Tacitus  and  other 
ancient  historians  175 

Statius,  P.  Papinius  23  ;  his  epics 
24  sqq.,  27,  30  sqq.,  49  sqq.  ;  his 
beauties  49  sqq.  ;  his  models  in 
the  Thebais  5 1  ;  his  Siluae  1 1 7 
sqq.  ;  how  far  a  ne-w  genre  119  ; 
impromptu  character  imparted  to  j 
them  122  ;  his  hexameter  52,  120      > 

Stella,  L.  Arruntius  96 

Stoicism  of  Seneca  208 

Strategemata,  the  311 

Studiosus,  the  265 

Style,  ancient  rules  of  39,  175 

Suasoria  257 

Suetonius  Paulinus,  C.  161 

Sulpicia  96 

Supernatural  in  the  Epic,  use  of  the 
33 

Tacitus,  P.  Cornelius  162 ;  his 
historical  and  biographical  works 
164  sqq.  ;  conception  of  History 
169;  impartiality  170;  political 
standpoint  171  ;  use  of  authorities 
173  ;  attitude  in  the  matter  of 
speeches  175  ;  T.  le  plus  grand 
peintre  de  P antiquity  178  sqq.  ; 
his  observations  185^^^. ;  language 
and  style  189  sqq.  ;  influence  191  , 
sqq. ;  his  oratory  132;  see  Dialogus,  | 
Gerniania 

Taste,  bad  :  in  the  epics  30,  37  ;  in 
Senecan  drama  59 ;  in  Statius' 
Siluae  124  , 

Tenderness  in  Martial  112,  113  ;  in 
Statius  50,  51,  125,  126 

Texts  of  Authors,  History  of  the  : 
42,  48,  53,  54,  73,  74,  83,  84,  85, 
94,  96',  99>  I02S  116,  122,  136, 


INDEX 


323 


147, 149, 160, 192, 193,  236, 248, 
259,  262,  275,  283, 300,  310, 312 

Thebais,   argument  of  the  24 ;    its 

models  51 
Theocritus  and  Calpurnius  91,  92 
Tiberius'  autobiography  160 
Trachalus  :  see  Galerius 
Tragedy  55  sqq. 
Trajan's iPo^/ca  162;  correspondence 

with  Pliny  the  Younger  248  sqq. 
Translation  from  the  Greek,  Roman 

theories  as  to  38 
Translations  97  sqq. 
Trimakhto,  the  Banquet  of  22"]  sqq. 
Troades,    scene   from    Seneca's    59 

sqq. 
Turnus  74 

Urbanitas  235 
Utopian  tendency  296 

Valerius  Flaccus,  C.  20 ;  his 
Argonautica  20  sqq.,  29  sqq.,  43 
sqq.  ;  comparison  of  him  with 
Apollonius  43  sqq. ;  his  treatment 


of  love  44 ;  his  imaginativeness 
46  ;  his  constructive  skill  47 

Valerius  Maximus  147  sqq. 

Velleius  Paterculus,  C.  139  sqq.  ; 
his  excursuses  144  sqq. 

Verginius  Rufus,  L.  133,  158,  238*, 
241 

Vespasian's  memoirs  161 

Vestricius  Spurinna  96 

Vibius  Crispus,  Q.  130 

Vilica  286 

Vipstanus  Messalla,  memoirs  of  161 ; 
his  speeches  131 

Virgil  imitated  by  Calpurnius  91  ; 
by  Columella  288  ;  by  the  epic 
poets  38  sqq.  ;  used  by  the 
declaimers  14;  by  Petronius  235; 
by  Seneca  205,  235 


Whole  subordinated  to  the 

the  5,  15,  30,  35,  81,  144 
Words  strained  in  Tacitus  188 
Wounds  in  Epic  36 

Xenia  loi 


part, 
191 


Printed  by  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 
at  the  Edinburgh  University  Press 


I 
I 


A    SELECTION     FROM 

Messrs.   Methuen's 

PUBLICATIONS 

This  Catalogue  contains  only  a  selection  of  the  more  important  books 
published  by  Messrs.  Methuen.  A  complete  catalogue  of  their  publications 
may  be  obtained  on  application. 


Bain  (F.  W.)— 
A  Digit  of  the  Moon  :  A  Hindoo  Love 
Story.  The  Descent  of  the  Sun:  A 
Cycle  of  Birth.  A  Heifer  of  the  Dawn. 
In  the  Gkeat  God's  Hair.  A  Draught 
OF  the  Blue.  An  Essence  of  the  Dusk. 
An  Incarnation  of  the  Snow.  A  Mine 
OF  Faults.  The  Ashes  of  a  God. 
Bubbles  of  the  Foam.  A  Svrup  of  the 
Bees.     The   Livery  of    Eve.     The   Sub- 

j  stance  of  a  Dream.  All  Fcap.  Zvo.  ^s. 
net.  An  Echo  of  the  Spheres.  Wide 
Demy.     lis.  6d.  net. 

I  Balfour     (Graham).       THE     LIFE    OF 

!  ROBERT  LOUIS  STEVENSON.  Fif- 
teenth Edition.  In  one  Voiume.  Cr.  Sve. 
Buckram,  js.  6d.  net. 

tJelloc  (H.)— 
Paris,  Zs.  6d.  net.  Hills  and  the  Sea,  6s. 
net.  On  Nothing  and  Kindred  Subjects, 
6i.  net.  On  Everything,  &r.  net.  On  Some- 
thing, ds.  net.  First  and  Last,  6j.  net. 
This  a.nd  That  and  the  Other,  ts.  net. 
Marie  Antoinette,  i8j.  net.  The  Pyre- 
nees, los.  6d.  net. 

Blocmfontein  (Bishop  of).  ARA  CCELI  : 
An  Essay  in  Mystical  Theology. 
Seventh  Edition.     Cr.  Zvo.     ^s.  net. 

FAITH     AND     EXPERIENCE.       Third 

i     Edition.     Cr.  Zvo.     $s.  net. 

I  THE       CULT       OF      THE       PASSING 

I  MOMENT.  Fourth  Edition.  €?.  8vo. 
^s.  net. 

THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH  AND  RE- 
UNION.    Cr.  Zvo.     5 J.  net. 

SCALA  MUNDI.     Cr.  &vo.     4J.  6rf.  mt. 

Chesterton  (G.  K.)— 
The    Ballad    of    the    White    Horse. 
All  Things  Considered.     Tremendous 
Trifles.     Alarms   and   Discursions.     A 

i     Miscellany  of  Men.    All Fea/>.  Svo.     6s. 

\  net.  Wine,  Water,  and  Song.  Fcap.  Svo. 
a:  6d  net. 

Clutton-Brock     (A.).     THOUGHTS    ON 

THE  WAR.     Ninth  Edition.     Fcap.  ivo. 
1     IS.  6d.  net. 
WHAT  IS  THE  KINGDOM  OF  HEAVEN? 

Fourth  Edition.     Fcap.  8jo.     5^.  net. 
ESSAYS  ON  ART.    Second  Edition.     Fcap. 

ivo.     ^s.  net. 

Cole  (G.  D.  H.).    SOCIAL  THEORY.    Cr. 

?iVO.     sj.  net. 
Conrad   (Joseph).     THE    MIRROR    OF 
THE    SEA:    Memories    and    Impressions. 
Fourth  Edition.     Fcap.  Zvo.     6s.  net. 


Einstein  (A.).  RELATIVITY  :  THE 
SPECIAL  AND  THE  GENERAL 
THEORY.  Translated  by  Robert  W. 
Lawsi'N.     Cr.  Sz'o.     ss.  net. 

Fyleman  (Rose.).  FAIRIES  AND  CHIM- 
NEYS. Fcap.  Svo.  Sixth  Edition. 
3J.  6d.  net. 

THE  FAIRY  GREEN.  TAird  Edition. 
Fcap.  %7io.    y.  6d.  net. 

Glbblns  (H.  de  B.).  INDUSTRY  IN 
ENGLAND:  HISTORICAL  OUT- 
LINES. With  Maps  and  Plans.  Tenth 
Edition.     Demy  ?,z<o.     11s.  6d.  net. 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  HISTORY  OF 
ENGLAND.  With  5  Maps  and  a  Plan. 
Twenty-seventh  Edition.     Cr.  ?,vo.     $s. 

Gibbon  (Edward).  THE  DECLINE  AND 
FALL  OF  THE  ROMAN  EMPIRE. 
Edited,  with  Notis,  Appendices,  and  Maps, 
byj.  B.  Bury.  Illustrated.  Seven  Volumes. 
Demy  Svo.  Illustrated.  Each  12s.  6d.  net. 
Also  in  Seven  Volumes.  Cr.  Svo.  Each 
7s.  6d.  net. 

Glover  (T.  R.).  THE  CONFLICT  OF 
RELIGIONS  IN  THE  EARLY  ROMAN 
EMPIRE.  Ei^-hth  Edilion.  Demy  Svo. 
10s.  6d.  net. 

POETS  AND  PURITANS.  Second  Edition. 
Demy  Svo.     10s.  6d.  net. 

FROM  PERICLES  TO  PHILIP.  Third 
Edition.     Demy  Svo,     los.  6d.  net. 

VIRGIL.  Fourth  Edition.  Demy  Svo. 
los.  6d.  net. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  TRADITION  AND 
ITS  VERIFICATION.  (The  Angus  Lec- 
ture for  1913.)  Second  Edition.  Cr.  Svo. 
6s.  net. 

Grahame  (Kenneth).  THE  WIND  IN 
THE  WILLOWS.  Tenth  Edition.  Cr. 
Svo.     js.  6d.  net. 

Hall  (H.  R.).  THE  ANCIENT  HISTORY 
OF  THE  NEAR  EAST  FROM  THE 
EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  THE  BATTLE 
OF  SALAMIS.  Illustrated.  Fourth  Edi- 
tion.    Demy  Svo.     \6s.  net. 

Hobson  (J.  A.).  INTERNATIONAL 
TRADE :  An  Application  of  Economic 
Thbory.     Cr.  Svo.     55-.  r,et. 

PROBLEMS  OF  POVERTY:  An  Inquiry 
into  the  Industrial  Condition  of  this 
Poor.     FJi^hth  Edition.     Cr.  Svo.     si-.  net. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  UN- 
EMPLOYED:  An  Inquiry  and  an 
Economic  Policy.  Sixth  Edition.  Cr.  Svo. 
5J.  net. 


2 


Messrs.  Methuen's  Publications 


GOLD,  PRICES  AND  WAGES  :  With  an 

Examination  of  the  Quantity  Theory. 

Second  Edition.     Cr.  ?,vo.     ^s.  net. 
TAXATION     IN    THE    NEW    STATE. 

Cy.  Zvo.     6s.  net. 
Holdsworth  (W.  S.).     A    HISTORY  OF 

ENGLISH     LAW.      Vol.    I.,    II.,    III., 

Each  Second  Edition.    Demy  Svo.    Each 

i5i.  net. 
Inge  (W.  R.).    CHRISTIAN  MYSTICISM. 

( The  Bampton   Lectures  of  1899.)    Fourth 

Edition.     C>:  Sz>o.     ys.  6d.  net. 
Jonks  (E.).     AN    OUTLINE    OF    ENG- 
LISH LOCAL  GOVERNMENT.  Fourth 

Edition.    Revised  by  R.  C.  K.  Ensor.    Cr. 

Zvo.     5^.  net. 
A     SHORT    HISTORY    OF    ENGLISH 

LAW :    From   the   Earliest    Times    to 

THE    End    of    the    Year    1911.     Second 

Edition,  revised.     Demy  %vo.     12s.  6d.  net. 
Julian   (Lady)   of  Norwich.     REVELA- 
TIONS OF  DIVINE  LOVE.     Edited   by 

Grace  Warrack.     Seventh  Edition.     Cr. 

"ivo.     V.  net. 
Keats  (John).  POEMS.  Edited,  with  Intro- 
duction and  Notes,  by  E.  de  Selincourt. 

With    a     Frontispiece     in     Photogravure. 

Third  Edition.     Demy  Sz'O.     los.  6d.  net. 
Kipling    (Rudyard).      BARRACK-ROOM 

BALLADS.      205/A    Thousand.    Cr.   Svo. 

Buckram,    7s.    6d.    net.    Also  Fcap.   Zvo. 

Cloth,  ts.  net;  leather,  -js.  td.  net. 

Also    a    Service    Edition.       Two   Volumes. 

Square  fcap.  ivo.     Each  3i.  net. 
THE    SEVEN    SEAS,      isind     Thousand. 

Cr.  Zvo.    Buckram,  js.  6d.  net.    Also  Fcap. 

%vo.     Cloth,  6s.  n*t ;  leather,  js.  6d.  net. 

Also    a    Service   Edition.       Tivo    Volumes. 

Square  fcap.  Zvo.     Each  35.  net. 
THE  FIVE   NATIONS.     126/A    Thousand. 

Cr.  Zvo.    Buckram,  ys.  6d.  net.    Also  Fcap. 

Szio.    Cloth,  6s.  net ;  leather,  ts.  6d.  net. 

Also   a   Service    Edition.      Two    Volumes. 

Square  fcap.  Svo.     Each  ^s.  net. 
DEPARTMENTAL  DITTIES.   94M  Thou- 
sand.    Cr.    Svo.     Buckram,    ys.    6d.    net. 

Also   Fcap.  Svo.     Cloth,   6s.  net;    ieather, 

■JS.  6d.  net. 

Also    a    Service    Edition.     Two    Volumes. 

Square/cap.  Svo.     Each  3^.  net. 
THE      YEARS     BETWEEN.      Cr.      Svo. 

Buckram,  ys.  6d.  net.     Also  on  thin  paper. 

Fcap.    Svo.    Blue   cloth,    6s.    net;    Limp 

lambskin,  js.  6d.  net. 

Also    a    Service    Edition.     Two    Volumes. 

Square  fcap.  Svo.     Each  -^s.  net. 
HYMN    BEFORE   ACTION.     Illuminated. 

Fcap   \to.     IS.  6d.  net. 
RECESSIONAL.     Illuminated.     Fcap.    ^to. 

xs.  6d.  net. 
TWENTY    POEMS    FROM     RUDYARD 

KIPLING.     360M  Thousand.     Fcap.  Svo. 

IS.  net. 
Lamb  (Charles  ana  Mary).     THE  COM- 
PLETE WORKS.    Edited  by  E.  V.  Lucas. 

A  New  and  Revised  Edition  in  Six  Volumes. 

With  Frontispieces.  Fcap,  Svo.  Each  6s.  net. 


The  volumes  are  : — 

I.  Miscellaneous  Prose,  ii,  Elia  ANb 
the  Last  Essay  of  Elia.  hi.  Books 
for  Children,  iv.  Plays  and  Poems. 
V.   and  VI.  Letters. 

Lankeste^  (Sir  Ray).  SCIENCE  FROM 
AN  EASY  CHAIR.  Illustrated.  Thirteenth 
Edition.     Cr.  Svo.     ys.  6d.  net. 

SCIENCE  FROM  AN  EASY  CHAIR. 
Illustrated.  Second  Series.  Third  Edition. 
Cr.  Svo.     js.  6d.  net. 

DIVERSIONS  OF  A  NATURALIST. 
Illustrated.  Third  Edition.  Cr.  Svo. 
"JS.  6d.  net. 

SECRETS  OF  EARTH  AND  SEA.  Cr. 
Svo.     Ss.  6d  tut. 

Lodge  (Sir  Oliver).  MAN  AND  THE 
UNIVERSE  :  A  Study  of  the  Influence 
OF  the  Advance  in  Scientific  Know- 
ledge upon  our  Understanding  ok 
Christianity.  Ninth  Edition.  Crown  Svo 
JS.  6d.  net. 

THE  SURVIVAL  OF  MAN :  A  Study  in 
Unrecognised  Human  Faculty.  Seventh 
Edition.     Cr.  Svo.     ys.  6d.  net. 

MODERN  PROBLEMS.  Cr.  Svo.  7s.  6d. 
net. 

RAYMOND  ;  or  Life  and  Death.  Illus- 
trated. Twelfth  Edition.  Demy  Svo.  15^. 
net. 

THE  WAR  AND  AFTER :  Short  Chaf 
ters  on  Subjects  of  Serious  Practical 
Import  for  the  Average  Citizen  in  a.d. 
1915  Onwards.  Eighth  Edition.  Fcap 
Svo.     IS.  net. 

Lucas  (E.  v.). 
The  Life  of  Charles  Lamb,  2  vols.,  zis. 
net.  A  Wanderer  in  Holland,  \as.  6d.  net. 
A  Wanderer  in  London,  loj.  6d.  net. 
London  Revisited,  \os.  6d.  net.  A  Wan- 
derer IN  Paris,  10s.  6d.  net  and  6s.  net.  A 
Wanderer  in  Florence,  10s.  6d.  net. 
A  Wanderer  in  Venice,  10s.  6d.  net.  The 
Open  Road  :  A  Little  Book  for  Wayfarers, 
6s.  6d.  net  and  ys.  6d.  net.  The  Friendly 
Town  :  A  Little  Book  for  the  Urbane,  6s. 
net.  Fireside  and  Sunshine,  6s.  net 
Character  and  Comedy,  6s.  net.  The 
Gentlest  Art  :  A  Choice  of  Letters  by! 
Entertaining  Hands,  6j.  6d.  net.  The 
Second  Post,  6s.  net.  Her  Infinite 
Variety  :  A  Feminine  Portrait  Gallery,  6s. 
net.  Good  Company  :  A  Rally  of  Men,  6s. 
net.  One  Day  and  Another,  6s.  net. 
Old  Lamps  for  New,  6s.  net.  Loiterer's 
Harvest,  6s.  net.  Cloud  and  Silver,  6s. 
net.  Listener's  Lure  :  An  Oblique  l>far' 
ration,  6s.  net.  Over  Bemerton's  :  An 
Easy-Going  Chronicle,  6s.  net.  Mr.  InglE' 
side,  6.r.  net.  London  Lavender,  6s.  net. 
Landmarks,  6s.  net.  A  Boswell  of 
Baghdad,  and  other  Essays,  6s.  net. 
'Twixt  Eagle  and  Dove,  6s.  net.  The 
Phantom  Journal,  AND  other  Essays  and 
Diversions,  6j-.  net.  The  British  Schoov 
An  Anecdotal  Guide  to  the  British  Painters 
and  Paintings  in  the  National  Gallery,  6^.  nei,^ 


Messrs.  Methuen's  Publications 


HoDougall  (William).  AN  INTRODUC- 
TION TO  SOCIAL  PSYCHOLOGY. 
Fourteenth  Edition,  Enlarged.  Cr.  8vo. 
■js.  6d.  net. 

BODY  AND  MIND  :  A  History  and  a 
Defence  of  Animism.  Fourth  Edition. 
Demy  Zvo.     12s.  6d.  net. 

Maeterlinck  (Maurice)— 
The  Blue  Bird  :  A  Fairy  Play  in  Six  Acts, 
ds.  net.  Marv  Magdalene  :  A  Play  in 
Three  Acts,  5^.  net.  Death,  3^.  dd.  net. 
Our  Eternity,  is.  net.  The  Unknown 
Guest,  6i-.  net.  Poems,  sj.  net.  The 
Wrack  of  the  Storm,  6j.  net.  _  The 
Miracle  of  St.  Anthony  :  A  Play  in  One 
Act,  3J.  dd.  net.  The  Burgomaster  of 
Stilemonde  :  A  Play  in  Three  Acts,  51. 
net.  The  Betrothal  ;  or.  The  Blue  Bird 
Choose."!,  ds.  net.  Mountain  Paths,  ts. 
net. 

Milne  (A.  A.).  The  Day's  Play.  The 
Holiday  Round.  Once  a  Week.  All 
Cr.  Svo.  ys.  net.  Not  that  it  Matters. 
Fcap.  Svo     6s.  net. 

Oxenbam  (John>— 

Bees  in  Ambbr  ;  A  Little  Book  of  Thought- 
ful Verse.  All's  Well  :  A  Collection  of 
War  Poems.  The  King's  High  Way.  The 
Vision  Splendid.  The  Fiery  Cross. 
High  Altars:  The  Record  of  a  Visit  to 
the  Battlefields  of  France  and  Flanders. 
Hearts  Courageous.  All  Clear  I 
Winds  of  the  Dawn.  All  Small  Fott 
Zvo.  Paper,  is.  2d.  net ;  cloth  boards,  2s. 
net.    Gentlemen— The  King,  2^.  net. 

Petrle  (W.   H.  Flinders).    A   HISTORY 

OF    EGYPT.     Illustrated.     Six    Volumes. 

Cr.  Z,vo.     Each  gs.  net. 
Vol.    I.    From   the    1st  to    the    XVIth 

Dynasty.     Ninth  Edition.     10s.  6d.  net. 
Vol.    II.      The    XVIIth     and     XVIIIth 

Dyn.^sties.     Si-vth  Ediiion. 
Vol.  III.  XIXth  to  XXXth  Dynasties. 

Second  Edition. 
Vol.   IV.      Egypt  under  the  Ptolemaic 

Dynasty.  J.  P.  Mahaffv.  Second  Edition. 
Vol.  V.    Egypt  under  Roman  Rule.  J.  G. 

Milne.     Second  Edition. 
Vol.  VI.    Egypt    in  the    Middle    Ages. 

Stanley  Lane  Poole.    Second  Edition. 
SYRIA  AND  EGYPT,  FROM  THE  TELL 

EL    AMARNA     LETTERS.      Cr.     Zvo. 

51-.  net. 
EGYPTIAN  TALES.    Translated  from  the 

Papyri.    First  Series,  ivth  to  xiith  Dynasty. 

Illustrated.       Third     Edition.       Cr.     &~jo. 

5J.  net. 
EGYPTIAN   TALES.     Translated  from  the 

Papyri.     Second  Series,  xviiith  to   xixth 

Dynasty.      Illustrated.        Second    Edition. 

Cr.  Svo.     $s.  net. 

Pollard  (A.  P.).  A  SHORT  HISTORY 
OF  THE  GREAT  WAR.  With  19  Maps. 
Second  Edition.     C>.S7Jo.     ios.6d.net. 


Price  (L.  L.).  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF 
POLITICAL  ECONOMY  IN  ENGLAND 
FROM  ADAM  SMITH  TO  ARNOLD 
TOYNBEE.  JVin/h  Edition.  Cr.  Svo. 
5s.  net. 

Reid  (G.  Archdall).  THE  LAWS  OF 
HEREDITY.  Second  Edition.  DemyZvo. 
£1  IS.  net. 

Robertson  (C.  Grant).  SELECT  STAT- 
UTES, CASES,  AND  DOCUMENTS. 
1660-1832.  Third  Edition.  Demy  Zvo- 
i^s.  net. 

SelouB  (Edmund)  TOMMY  SMITH'S 
ANIMALS.  Illustrated.  Eighteenth  Edi- 
tion.    Fcai.  Svo.     3^.  (>d.  net. 

TOMMY  SMITH'S  OTHER  ANIMALS. 
Illustrated.  Eleventh  Edition.  Fcap.  Svo. 
3.V.  dd.  net. 

TOMMY  SMITH  AT  THE  ZOO.  Illus- 
trated. Fourth  Edition.  Fcap.  Svo. 
2s.  gd. 

TOMMY  SMITH  AGAIN  AT  THE  ZOO. 
Illustrated.     Fcap.  Svo.     2J.  gd. 

JACK'S  INSECTS.  Illustrated.  Cr.Zvo.  6s. 
net. 

JACK'S  INSECTS.  Popular  Edition.  Vol. 
I.     Cr.  Svo.    3J.  6d. 

Shelley  (Percy  Bysshe).  POEMS.  With 
an  Introduction  by  A.  Clutton-Brock  and 
Notes  by  C.  D.  LococK.  Two  Volumes. 
Demy  Svo.     £1  is.  net. 

Smith  (Adam).  THE  WEALTH  OF 
NATIONS.  Edited  by  Edwin  Cannan. 
Two  Volumes.  Second  Edition.  Demy 
Svo.    £1  s-r.  net. 

Stevenson  (R.  L.).  THE  LETTERS  OF 
ROBERT  LOUIS  STEVENSON.  Edited 
by  Sir  Sidney  Colvin.  A  New  Re- 
arranged Edition  in  four  volumes.  Fourth 
Edition.     Fcap.  Svo.    Each  6s.  net 

Surtees  (R.  S.).  HANDLEY  CROSS 
Illustrated.  Ninth  Edition.  Fcap.  Svo. 
Ts.  6d.  net. 

MR.  SPONGE'S  SPORTING  TOUR 
Illustrated.  Fifth  Edition.  Fcap.  Svo. 
■JS.  6d.  net. 

ASK  MAMMA:  or,  THE  RICHEST 
COMMONER  IN  ENGLAND.  Illus 
trated.  Second  Edition.  Fcap.  Svo.  -js.  6d. 
net. 

JORROCKS'S  JAUNTS  AND  JOLLI 
TIES.  Illustrated.  Seventh  Edition 
Fcap.  Sve.     6s.  net. 

MR.  FACEY  ROMFORD'S  HOUNDS 
Illustrated.  Third  Edition.  Fcap.  Svo 
•]S.  6d.  net. 

HAWBUCK  GRANGE  ;  or,  THE  SPORT 
ING  ADVENTURES  OF  THOMAS 
SCOTT,  Esq.  Illustrated.  Fcap.  Svo. 
6s.  net. 

PLAIN  OR  RINGLETS?  Illustrated 
Fcap.  Sto.     yx.  dd.  net. 

HILLINGDON  HALL.  With  12  Coloured 
Plates  by  Wii.dkakk,  Heath,  and  JellI' 
COR.     Fcap.  Svo.    JS.  6d.  net. 


Messrs.  Methuen's  Publications 


Tlleston  (Mary  W.).   DAILY  STRENGTH 

FOR     DAILY    NEEDS.       Twentv-sixth 

Edition.     Medium  ztmo.     3^.  6d.  net. 
Underhill     (Evelyn).     MYSTICISM.      A 

Study   in   the   Nature  and  Development  of 

Man's     Spiritual     Consciousness.       Eighth 

Edition.     Demy  Zvo.     i$s.  net. 
Yardon  (Harry).    HOW  TO  PLAY  GOLF 

Illustrated.     Thirteenth  Edition.     Cr.  8zo. 

5s.  net. 

Waterhouse    (Elizabeth).      A  LITTLE 

BOOK      OF      LIFE      AND  DEATH. 

Twentieth  Edition.  Small  Pott  %vo. 
Cloth,  IS.  td.  net. 

Wells  (J.).  A  SHORT  HISTORY  OF 
ROME.  Seventeenth  Edition.  With  3 
Maps.     Cr.  Zvo.     6s. 

Wilde  (Osoar).   THE  WORKS  OF  OSCAR 

WILDE.     Fcap.  Zvo.     Each6s.6d.net. 
I.  Lord  Arthur  Savile's  Crime  and 

THE    PORTSAIT    OF    Mr.    W.    H.       II.     ThE 

Duchess  of  Padua,  in.  Poems,  iv. 
Lady  Windermere's  Fan.  v.  A  Woman 
of  No  Importance,    vi.  An  Ideal  Hus- 


band, vii.  The  Importance  of  Being 
Earnest.  viii.  A  House  of  Pome- 
granates. IX.  Intentions,  x.  De  Pro- 
fundis  and  Prison  Letters,  xi.  Essays. 
xii.  Salom6,  a  Florentine  Tragedy, 
and  La  Sainte  Courtisane.  xiii.  A 
Critic  in  Pall  Mall.  xiv.  Selected 
Prose  of  Oscar  Wilde,  xv.  Art  and 
Decoration. 

A  HOUSE  OF  POMEGRANATES.  Illus- 
trated.    Cr.  ^to.     2\s.  net. 

Wood  (Llent.  W.  B.)  and  Edmonds  (Col. 
J.  B.).  A  HISTORY  OF  THE  CIVIL 
WAR  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 
(1861-65).  With  an  Introduction  by  Spenser 
V/iLKiNSON.  With  24  Maps  and  Plans. 
Third  Edition.     Demy  Zvo.     i$s.  net. 

Wordsworth  (W.).  POEMS.  With  an 
Introduction  and  Notes  by  Nowell  C. 
Smith.  Three  Volumes.  Demy  Svo.  iSs. 
net. 

Yeats  (W.  B.).  A  BOOK  OF  IRISH 
VERSE.  Fourth  Edition.  Cr.  Svo. 
7s.  net. 


Part    II. — A    Selection   of   Series 
Ancient  Cities 

General  Editor,  Sir  B.  C.  A.  WINDLE 
Cr.  Svo.     6s.  net  each  volume 
With  Illustrations  by  E.  H.  New,  and  other  Artists 


Bristol.     Canterbury.     Chester.     Dub-  I  Edinburgh.         Lincoln. 
'-"^'  I      Wells  and  Glastonbury. 


Shrbwsbdrv. 


Ancient  Painted  Glass  in  England, 
Arch.*;ology  and  False  Antiquities. 
The  Bells  of  England.  The  Brasses 
OF  England.  The  Castles  and  Walleo 
Towns  of  England.  Celtic  Art  in 
Pagan  and  Christian  Times.  Church- 
wardens' Accounts.  The  Domesday 
Inquest.  English  Church  Furniture. 
English  Costume.  English  Monastic 
Life.  English  Seals.  Folk-Lore  as 
AN  Historical  Science.  The  Gilds  and 
Companies  of  London.  The  Hermits 
AND    Anchorites    of    England.      The 


The  Antiquary's  Books 

General  Editor,  J.  CHARLES  COX 
Demy  Svo.  10s.  6d.  net  each  volume 
With  Numerous  Illustrations 


Manor  and  Manorial  Records.  The 
Mediaeval  Hospitals  of  England. 
Old  English  Instruments  of  Music. 
Old  English  Libraries.  Old  Service 
Books  of  the  English  Church.  Parish 
Life  in  Mediaeval  England.  The 
Parish  Registers  of  England.  Re- 
mains OF  the  Prehistoric  Age  in  Eng- 
land. The  Roman  Era  in  Br- tain. 
Romano-British  Buildings  and  P:arth- 
woRKS.  The  Royal  Forests  of  Eng- 
land. The  Schools  of  Medieval  Eng- 
land.   Shrines  of  British  Saints. 


The  Arden  Shakespeare 

General  Editor,   R.  H.  CASE 

Demy  Svo.     6s.  net  each  volume 

A.n  edition  of  Shakespeare  in  Single  Plays  ;  each  edited  with  a  full  Introduction, 
Textual  Notes,  and  a  Commentary  at  the  foot  of  the  page. 


Classics  of  Art 

Edited  by  Dr.  J.  H.  W.  LAING 

With  numerous  Illustrations.      Wide  Royal  Svo 

The  Art  of  the  Greeks,  15J.  net.  The 
Art  of  the  Romans,  \(ss.nct.  Chardin, 
15^.  net.  DoNATEi.LO,  i6j.  net.  George 
RoMNEV,  I5i.  net.  Ghirlandaio,  15^-.  net. 
Lawrence,  25^.  net.    Michelangelo,  15^. 


Messrs.  Methuen's  Publications 


5 


net.  Raphael,  15^.  net.  Rekbrandi 's 
Etchings,  Two  Vols.,  25J.  net.  Tintor- 
etto, i5i-.  net.  Titian,  \f>s.  net.  Turner's 
Sketches  and  Drawings,  151.  net. 
Velazquez,  15^.  tiet. 


The  'Complete'  Series 

Fully  Illustrated.     Demy  Hvo 


The  Complete  Amateur  Boxer,  ios.  6a. 
net.  The  Complete  Association  Foot- 
baller, ickf.  td.  net.  The  Complete 
Athletic  Trainer,  iot.  dd.  net.  The 
Complete  Billiard  Player,  12s.  td. 
net.  The  Complete  Cook,  i<m.  dd.  net. 
The  Complete  Cricketer,  \os.  dd.  net. 
The  Complete  Foxhunter,  i6.t.  net. 
The  Complete  Golfer,  x2s.  td.  net. 
The  Complete  Hockey-Plater,  loj.  6d. 
net.    The  Complete  Horseman,  izs.  td. 


net.  The  Complete  Jujitsuan,  sj.  net. 
The  Complete  Lawn  Tennis  Player, 
12s.  td.  net.  The  Complete  Motorist^ 
lar.  id.  net.  The  Complete  Mountain 
eer,  i6j.  net.  The  Complete  Oarsman 
15J.  net.  The  Complete  Photographer 
iS^y.  net.  The  Complete  Rugby  Foot 
baller,  on  the  New  Zealand  System 
I2J.  td.  net.  The  Complete  Shot,  its, 
net.  The  Compi.etf;  Swimmer,  \os.  td. 
net.     The  Complete  Yachtsman,  its.  net. 


The  Connoissenr's  Library 

With  numerous  Illustrations.      Wide  Royal  Svo.     2^s.  net  each  volume 


!-nglish  Coloured  Books.  English  Fur- 
niture. Etchings.  European  Enamels. 
Fine  Books.  Glass.  Goldsmiths'  and 
Silversmiths'       Work.        Illuminated 


Manuscripts.  Ivories.  Jewellery. 
Mezzotints.  Miniatures.  Porcelain. 
Seals.    Wood  Sculpture. 


Handbooks  of  Theology 

Demy  Svo 


HE  Doctrine  of  the  Incarnation,  15,5. 
net.  A  History  of  Early  Christian 
Doctrine,  16^-.  net.  Introduction  to 
the  History  of  Religion,  12s.  6d.  net. 
An  Introduction  to  the    History  of 


the  Creeds,  12s.  td.  net.  The  Philosoi-mv 
op  Religion  in  England  and  Ami-rica, 
Z2S.  dd.  net.  The  XXXIX  Articles  of 
the  Church  of  England,  15J.  net. 


Health  Series 

Fcap.  Svo.     2s.  6d.  net 


'he  Baby.  The  Care  of  the  Body.  The 
Care  of  the  Teeth.  The  Eyes  of  our 
Children.  Health  for  the  Middle- 
Aged.  The  Hf,ai,th  of  a  Woman.  The 
Health    of   the   Skin.      How  to   Live 


Long.  The  Prevention  of  the  Common 
Cold.  Stavini;  the  Plague.  Tuiit.A-i- 
AND  Ear  Troui'.lks.  Tuberculosis,  'J'lui 
Health  of  the  Child,  as.  net. 


6  Messrs.  Methuen's  Publications 

Leaders  of  Religion 

Edited  by  H.  C.  BEECHING.       IVith  Portraits 
Crown  %vo.     3^.  net  each  volume 

The  Library  of  Devotion 

Handy  Editions  of  the  great  Devotional  Books,  well  edited. 

With   Introductions  and  (where  necessary)  Notes 

Small  Pott  Stjo,  cloth,   'i,s.   net  and  3^.  dd.  net 

Little  Books  on  Art 

With  many   IlluUraiions.     Demy  iGvio.     ^s.  net  each  volume 

Each  volume  consists  of  about  200  pages,  and  contains  from  30  to  40  Illustrations, 

including  a  Frontispiece  in  Photogravure 

Boucher.  Holbein.  Illuminated 


Albrecht  DtJRER.  The  Arts  of  Japan, 
bookplater.  botticelli.  burne-jones. 
Cellini.  Christian  Symbolism.  Christ 
IN  Art.  Claude.  Cljnstable.  Corot. 
Early  English  Water-Coiour.  Ena- 
mels. Frederic  Leighton.  George 
RoMNEY.       Greek    Art.       Greuze    and 


Manuscripts.     Jewellery.     John  Hoit 
ner.     Sir    Joshua    Reynolds.      Millet.  , 
Miniatures.  Our  Lady  in  Art.  Raphael 
RiiDiN.    Turner.    Vandyck.  Velazquez 
Watts. 


The  Little  Guides 

With  many  Illustrations  by  E.  H.  New  and  other  artists,  and  from  photographs 

Small  Pott  Svo.     4s.  net  and  ds.  net 

Guides  to  the  English  and  Welsh  Counties,  and  some  well-known  districts 

The  main  features  of  these  Guides  are  (i)  a  handy  and  charming  form  ;  (2) 
illustrations  from  pliotographs  and  by  well-known  artists  ;  (3)  good  plans  and 
maps  ;  (4)  an  adequate  but  compact  presentation  of  everything  thai  is  interesting 
in  the  natural  features,  history,  archaeology,  and  architecture  of  the  town  or 
district  treated. 

The  Little  Quarto  Shakespeare 

Edited  by  W.  J.  CRAIG.     With  Introductions  .and  Notes 
Pott  l6mo.     40    Volutnes.     Leather,  price  \s.  gd,  net  each  volume 

Cloth,  IS.  6d. 


Nine  Plays 


Pca/>,  Svo. 


Across    the   Border.    Beulah  Marie  Dix. 

Cr.  Svo. 
Honeymoon,  The.     .\  Comedy  in  Three  Acts. 

Arnold  Bennett.      Third  Edition. 
Great  Adventure,  The.    A  Playof  Fancy  in 

Four  Acts.    Arnold  Bennett.    Fijtii  Eiiition. 
Miles  I  ONES.      Arnolil    Bennett  and  Edward 

K'joblock.     Ninlli  I'.ditioii. 
Ideal  Husband,  An.     Oscar  Wilde.     Acting; 

Edition. 


net 
Edward   Knoblock. 


Fourth    Edi- 


y.  6d. 

Kismet. 
Hon. 

Typhoon.  A  Play  in  Four  Acts.  Melchior 
Lengyel.  English  Version  by  Laurence 
Irving.     Second  Edition. 

Ware  Case,  The.     George  Pleydell. 

Genhual  Post.  J.  E.  Harold  Terry.  Second 
Edition. 


Messrs.  Methuen's  Publications 


Sports  Series 

Illustrated.     Fcap.  %vo,     2s.  net  and  35,  net 


All  About  Flving,  35.  net.  Golf  Do's 
andDont's.  The  Golfing  Swing.  How 
TO  Swim.     Lawn  Tennis,  3^.  net.     Skat- 


ing, 3^.  net.  CKObsCouNTKY  Ski-ing,  ^s. 
net.  WuEsTLiNG,  2^.  net.  Quick  Cuts 
TO  Good  Golf,  2s.  6d.  net. 


The  Westminster  Commentaries 

General  Editor,  WALTER  LOCK 
Demy  8vo 


The  A':ts  of  the  Apostles,  16s.  net. 
Amos,  8i.  dd.  net.  1.  Corinthians.  8^. 
td.  net.  Exodus,  15J.  net.  Ezekiel^ 
I2J.  bd.  net.  Genesis,  its.  net.  Hebrews, 
8j.  td.  net.     Isaiah,  ids.  net.     Jeremiah, 


i6j.  net.  Job,  Zs.  td.  net.  The  Pastoral 
ErisTLES,  Si.  6d.  net.  The  Philipi'ians, 
Si-,  td.  net.  St.  James,  8j.  td.  net.  St. 
Matthew,  15^.  net. 


Methuen's  Two-Shilling  Library 

Cheap  Editions  of  many  Popular  Books 
Fcap,  Svo 


Part  III. — A    Selection    of   Works    of    Fiction 


Bennett  (Arnold)— 

Clavhanger,  Ss.  net.  Hilda  Lessways, 
85.  6d.  net.  These  Twain.  The  Card. 
The  Regent  :  A  Five  Towns  Story  of 
.Adventure  in  London.  The  Price  of 
Love.  Buried  Alive.  A  Man  from  the 
North.  The  Matador  of  the  Five 
Towns.  Whom  God  hath  Joined.  A 
Great  Man  :  A  Frolic.     Att  js.  td.  net. 

Birmingham  (George  A.)— 
Spanish     Gold.      The    Search    Party. 
Lalage's  Lovers.    The  Bad  Times.    Up, 
THE  Rebels.    Alt  js.  td.  net. 

Burroughs  (Edgar  Rice)— 

Tarzan  of  the  Apes,  ts.  net.  The 
Return  of  Tarzan,  ts.  net.  The  Beasts 
OF  Tarzan,  ts.  tiet.  The  Son  of  Tarzan, 
ts.  net.  Jungle  Tales  of  Tarzan,  6^. 
net.  Tarzan  and  the  Jewels  of  Opak, 
ts.  net.  Tarzan  the  Untamed,  ^s.  td.  net. 
A  Princess  of  Mars,  6s.  net.  The  Gods 
OF  Mars,  ts.  net.  The  Warlord  ok 
Mars,  ts.  net. 

Conrad  (Joseph).    A  SET  OF  SIX.   Fourth 
Edition.     Cr.  tvo.     ys.  td.  net. 

VICTORY:      An     Island    Tale.       Sixth 
Edition,    Cr.  ivo.     yj.  net. 


Corelli  (Mario)— 

A  Romance  of  Two  Worlds,  js.  td.  net. 
Vendet  TA  :  or,  Tlio  Story  of  One  For- 
gotten, Zs.  net.  Thelma  :  A  Norwegian 
Princess,  85.  td.  net.  Akdath:  The  Story 
of  a  Dead  Self,  -js.  td.  net.  The  Soul  of 
LiLiTH,  7i.  6«'.  «<;/.  Wormwood:  A  Drama 
of  Paris,  Si-,  net.  Uarabbas  :  A  ]>ream  of 
the  World's  Tragedy,  8f.  net.  The  Sorrows 
OF  Satan,  7^.  td.  net.  The  Master- 
Christian,  8j.  td.  net.  Temporal  Power  : 
A  Study  in  Supremacy,  ts.  net.  God's 
Good  Man  :  A  Simple  Love  Story,  8j.  td. 
net._  Holy  Orders  :  The  Tragedy  of  a 
Quiet  Life,  is.  td.  net.  The  Mich  1  v  Atom, 
7 J.  td.  net.  Bov  :  A  Sketch,  7^^.  td.  net. 
Cameos,  ts.  net.  The  Life  Everlasting, 
8j.  td.  net. 

Doyle  (Sir  A.  Conan).  ROUND  THE  RED 
LAMP.  Twelfth  Edition.  Cr.  Svo.  js.  td 
net. 

Hichens  (Robert)— 

Tongues  of  Conscience,  ys.  td.  net. 
Felix  :  Three  Years  in  a  Life,  7^-.  td.  net. 
The  Woman  with  1  he  Fan,  7^-.  td.  net. 
Byeways,  7'.  td.  net.  Thk  Garden  of 
-Allah,  Zs.  td.  net.  The  Cam,  of  the 
Blood,  %s.  td.  net.  Barbaky  Smeep,  ts. 
net.  The  Dwellers  on  the  Thricshoi.d, 
TS.  td.  net.  Tnii  Way  of  Ambition,  -js. 
td.  net.    In  the  Wilderness,  ys.  td.  net. 


8 


Messrs.  Methuen's  Publications 


Hope (Anthony)— 

A  Change  of  Air.  A  Man  of  Mark. 
The  Chronicles  of  Count  Antonio. 
Simon  Dale.  The  King's  Mirror. 
QuisANT^.  The  Dolly  Dialogues. 
Tales  of  Two  People.  A  Servant  of 
THE  Public.  Mrs.  Maxon  Protests. 
A  Young  Man's  Year.  Beaumarov 
Home  i  rom  the  Wars.     AUts.  td.  net. 

Jacobs  (W.  W.)- 

Many  Cargoes,  s-f-  '"^  ^"*^  ^i.  td.  net. 
Sea  Urchins,  s^.  net  and  3^.  td.  net. 
A  Master  of  Craft,  5^.  net.  Light 
Freights.  5^.  net.  The  Skipper's  Woo- 
ing, 5J.  net.  At  Sunwich  Port,  51.  net. 
Dialstone  Lane,  5^.  net.  Odd  Craft, 
Si.  net.  The  Lady  of  the  Barge,  s^.  net. 
Salthaven,  5j.  net.  Sailors'  Knots,  sj. 
net.     Short  Cruises,  sj.  net. 

London  (Jack).  WHITE  FANG.  Ninth 
Edition.     Cr.  Zvo.     7s.  6d.  net. 

MoKenna  (Stephen)— 

SoNiA  :  Betw-jen  Two  Worlds,  is.  net. 
Ninety-Six  Hours'  Leave,  7^.  ad.  net. 
The  Sixth  Sense,  6j.  net.  Midas  &  Son, 
is.  net. 

Malet  (Lucas)— 

The  History  of  Sir  Richard  Calmady  : 
A  Romance.  The  Wages  of  Sin.  The 
Carissima.  The  Gateless  Barrier. 
Deadham  Harb.      Alijs.dd.  net. 

Mason  (A.  B.  W.).  CLEMENTINA. 
Illustraled.  Ninth  Edition.  Cr.  &vo.  ys. 
td.  net. 

Maxwell  (W.  B.)— 

Vivien.  The  Guarded  Flame.  Odd 
Lengths.  Hill  Rise.  The  Rest  Cure. 
All  75.  6d.  >iet. 

Ozenham  (John)— 

A  Weaver  of  Webs.  Profit  and  Loss. 
The  Song  of  HvACiNTH,  and  Otlier 
Stories.  Lauristons.  The  Coilof  Carne. 
The  Quest  of  the  Golden  Rose.  Mary 
All-Alone.  Broken  Shackles.  "  1914." 
All  7i.  6d.  net. 


Parker  (Gilbert)— 

Pierre  and  his  People.  Mrs.  Falchion.  | 
The  Translation  of  a  Savage.  When  ' 
Valmond  came  to  Pontiac  :  The  Story  of 
a  Lost  Napoleon.  An  Adventurer  of  the 
North  :  The  Last  Adventures  of  '  Pretty 
Pierre.'  The  Seats  of  the  Mighty.  The 
Battle  of  the  Strong :  A  Romance 
of  Two  Kingdoms.  The  Pomp  of  the 
Lavilettes.  Northern  Lights.  Ail 
7s.  6d.  net. 

Phillpotts  (Eden)— 

Children  of  the  Mist.  Sons  of  the 
Morning.  The  River.  The  American 
Prisoner.  Demetek's  Daughter.  The 
Human  Boy  and  the  War.    A  il  ys.  6d.  net. 

Ridge  (W.  Pett)— 

A  Son  of  the  State,  7s.  td.  net.  Thb 
Remington  Sentence,  7^.  td.  tut. 
Madame  Prince,  ys.  td.  net.  Top  Speed, 
7s.  td.  net.  Special  Performances,  ts. 
net.    The  Bustling  Hours,  ys.  td.  net. 

Rohmer  (Sax)— 
The     Devil     Doctor.       The     Si-Fan. 
Mysteries.     Tales     of    Secret    Egypt 
The  Orchard  of  Tears.     The  Golden 
Scorpion.     All  ys.  td.  net. 

Swinnerton  (F.).   SHOPS  AND  HOUSES. 

Third  Edition.     Cr.  &vo.     ys.  td.  net. 
SEPTEMBER.       Third  Edition.     Cr.    ivo. 

ys.  td.  net. 

Wells  (H.  G.).     BEALBY.    Fourth  Edition. 

Cr.  Zvo.    ys.  t.t.  net. 

Williamson  (C.  N.  and  A.  M.)— 

The  Lightning  Conductor:  The  Strange' 
Adventures  of  a  Motor  Car.  Lady  Betty 
across  the  Water.  Scarlet  Runner. 
Lord  Loveland  discovers  America. 
The  Guests  of  Hercules.  It  Happened 
in  Egypt.  A  Soldier  of  the  Legion. 
The  Shop  Girl.  The  Lightning  Con- 
ductress. Secret  History.  The  Love 
Pirate.  All  7s.  td.  net.  Crucifix 
Corner,    ts.  net. 


Methuen's  Two-Shilling  Novels 

Cheap  Editions  ol  many  ot  the  most  Popular  Novels  of  the  day 

Fcap.  8»tf 


^■^ 


«WDING  SECT.  JUL  26 tSTSr 


PLEASE  DO  NOT  REMOVE 
CARDS  OR  SLIPS  FROM  THIS  POCKET 


UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  LIBRARY 


PA  Summer,   Walter  Coventry 
60^2  The  silver  age  of  Latin 

SS  literature 
cop.  2